KUALA LUMPUR: Outspoken politician Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has hit out at Malay parties which remained silent on an announcement by the DAP leadership that they had two Ministers in waiting.
Zaid said in a Twitter posting that a “Chinese party” had already announced that they had two Ministers in waiting with “more maybe coming” but Malay parties remained silent on the subject.
The former law minister tweeted:
“A Chinese party in PH has announced they already have two Ministers in waiting. Maybe more coming. Malay parties are silent on the subject.
"Thats how Malays behave generally, shy and reticent to make their views known. Nothing has changed”.
He made the statement on Twitter after DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng annnounced on Monday that Nga Kor Ming, the Teluk Intan parliament candidate and Perak DAP chairman, will be appointed a Federal Minister if Pakatan Harapan wins the general election.
Lim also promised Johor DAP chairman Liew Chin Tong, who is contesting the Ayer Hitam parliament seat, a ministerial post upon national victory, when he was announced as a candidate last month.
When Zaid joined the DAP in February last year, he said he chose the party to bring its message of equality and justice to Malays whom he claimed were hoodwinked into believing that DAP was a chauvinistic Chinese party.
Zaid had recently claimed that he turned down an offer by the Kelantan Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) to contest a “glamorous rural seat”.
Last Tuesday, he tweeted that he sympathised with DAP’s Dr Tan Seng Giaw, who was dropped from his own Kepong seat after being an eight-term MP there.
“He was dumped after 30 years, I was done by just after 12 months. It must have hurt him a lot more,” Zaid wrote.
In Alor Star, Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said DAP’s announcement that Nga will be made a Federal minister should the Opposition take over Putrajaya clearly showed who was the “big brother” in the pact.
He said it was also proof that DAP was calling the shots in the opposition pact and that Malay leaders were merely puppets for the DAP to achieve its ultimate dream to have total control over the country’s politics.
“From the beginning, I have been suggesting that Pakatan Harapan is being controlled by the DAP and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is merely being used as a tool.
“That is why Lim Guan Eng had announced that Nga Kor Ming will be appointed as Federal minister although by right, the so-called prime minister should be the one making the announcement,” he told reporters after a work visit to Kolej Sultan Abdul Hamid here.
An online portal reported that Lim had made the announcement on Nga’s future after he was picked as DAP candidate for the Teluk Intan seat.
“To win Putrajaya, we must win seats, including those seats represented by a member of Parliament who is also a minister.
“So, if we want to defeat him (Mah) we must send a credible minister (to contest for the seat), we must send a candidate who, when we win Putrajaya...DAP will appoint him a minister,” he was quoted as saying.
In the 2014 by-election, Mah who is also Gerakan president, defeated DAP candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud by a 238 majority.
The by-election was held following the death of Teluk Intan DAP member of Parliament Seah Leong Peng.
Although Mah has yet to be announced as BN candidate for Teluk Intan, it is touted that he is going to defend the seat in GE14.