Seated apart

Party should reflect on why I quit, says Kota Melaka MP

Two ex-DAP Malacca assemblymen to be kept apart from former party reps.

GEORGE TOWN: Kota Melaka MP Sim Tong Him has hit out at those who criticised him for leaving the DAP.

He said no person, especially one who has been with the party for more than 40 years, would want to leave without a strong reason.

“They (DAP leadership) should ask themselves why a member wants to seek divorce after 43 years of marriage, and shouldn’t feel jilted only now,” he said yesterday.

Sim said as a veteran member, he should know what is going on in the DAP – whether it’s good or bad.

He was responding to DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng’s accusation that Sim’s resignation is an act of disloyalty.

Sim asked those who questioned his decision to do some soul-searching and not to divert his shock resignation by trying to conceal weaknesses in the DAP.

They should not question his loyalty as well, he added.

“I was committed to the party’s struggle before the current leadership deviated from its core objectives.

“My loyalty and commitment were to the party and I am not a person who will kow tow (be subservient) to party leaders who seem to have forgotten their humble beginnings,” he said.

Sim said he has contested on the DAP ticket since 1982 and is capable of gauging for himself the good and bad developments taking shape in the party.

“I am unfazed by certain party leaders who want to conceal the truth and are attempting to shift the blame on me by painting the picture that I am disloyal.

“Previously, it was wrong for me to air my grievances in public on certain issues. Now, I don’t have the right to resign?” he retorted.

Earlier, Lim said it was a mistake to believe that Sim and his faction leaders would remain loyal to the party.

He said the party could have taken disciplinary action against Sim when he stood as an independent candidate in the 2013 general election against a DAP candidate for the Kota Laksamana seat.

“However, the party believed he was misguided and still loyal to DAP and the people,” he said.

Lim said he would hold a meeting in Malacca at about 8pm today with state DAP leaders and members.

On Sunday, Sim together with three Malacca assemblymen – Goh Leong San (Duyong), Lim Jak Wong (Bachang) and Chin Choon Seong (Kesidang) – resigned from the party after 12 years of bitter relations between them and another faction in the state DAP as well as the national leadership.

I was committed to the party’s struggle before the current leadership deviated from its core objectives. Sim Tong Him