Loke Says Resignation Timing Agreed With Anwar

DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke said the timing of his resignation as Transport Minister, set to take effect once former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak pays the RM50 million fine attached to his house arrest, was agreed with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim when he handed in his letter, New Straits Times reported.

“Of course, people say that it’s an act, political, and so on. I am not wishy-washy or dilly-dally. He goes home. I leave,” Loke said in an interview with The Straits Times.

Loke announced on Sept 19 that he would quit the Cabinet in protest at the Pardons Board decision allowing Najib to serve the rest of his sentence at home, then handed his resignation to Anwar on Sept 28. His clarification a day later that the exit would only take effect once Najib pays the fine drew criticism, The Sun added.

Najib was granted a conditional pardon on Sept 18 that lets him serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest, subject to payment of the RM50 million fine imposed over his conviction in the SRC International case.

Analysts said the arrangement limits the damage on both sides. Hisommudin Bakar of Ilham Centre said it spares Anwar a Cabinet vacancy and the reshuffle speculation that would follow it, and argued Loke’s first announcement came across as hasty after DAP’s run of state election defeats, Channel NewsAsia noted. Azmi Hassan of the Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research said the shifting stance has left Loke open to mockery from political opponents. Legal experts add that the resignation does not need the prime minister’s consent: constitutional lawyer Joshua Wu said Article 43 of the Federal Constitution contains no such requirement, and lawyer Andrew Khoo said Anwar may try to talk Loke out of it but cannot force him to stay. Anwar himself has deflected the questions, saying: “What is the problem with Anthony Loke? The problem is corruption.”

Loke said his decision reflected the balancing act between staying in power and holding to principles the party says it cannot abandon, and that his position had been made clear. On DAP’s place in government, he said the party would never take Chinese support for granted but had to build consensus with coalition partners: “There is no way for DAP to form a government on its own without working with others.”