Calling the four elected reps from Malacca traitors to the party, Guan Eng said an urgent meeting would be held with the state DAP members tomorrow.
Guan Eng also said he now regretted trusting the four – Kota Melaka MP Sim Tong Him, Malacca assembly members Lim Jak Wong, Chin Choon Seong and Goh Leong San.
They announced their resignation yesterday, citing lack of trust in the party leadership as the party had deviated from its original objectives.
“I admit my mistake in trusting that Sim and his faction leaders, will remain loyal to DAP… despite their differences with the DAP Central Executive Committee(CEC),” Guan Eng said in a statement released today.
Referring to Sim’s debut as a DAP candidate, for the Tengkera state seat in Malacca in the 1986 general election, Guan Eng said it was his father Kit Siang, who had personally picked Sim.
“I am saddened to hear Sim saying now that he leaves the party he joined for nearly 35 years without any heartache,” Guan Eng said, adding that Sim had rebelled against the party leadership on previous occasions.
“The party had even pitied Sim when he faced imminent expulsion, after he declared his intention to stand as an independent candidate against a DAP candidate in the Kota Laksamana seat in the last general election.”
Questioning Sim’s loyalty to DAP, Guan Eng said Sim had clearly not stood by his own words.
“Sim had famously said that ‘he lived as DAP and would die as a DAP man, this fact is immutable’.
“Clearly Sim has broken his pledge not just to the party but to the people who supported the DAP,” Guan Eng said, adding that it was likely the four DAP members who had left could not accept their defeat in the state party polls in 2015.
The Penang chief minister also noted how it was soon after their defeat that Sim and his faction in Malacca DAP turned their aim to the party, particularly its state and national leaders, instead of to BN’s alleged scandals or the excesses of the Malacca chief minister.
“Instead of working to win back the confidence of DAP Melaka members, they turned against DAP for spurning them, leading to a one-year suspension by the party,” Guan Eng said, calling for DAP members and leaders to pick themselves up from this betrayal.