Opposition coalition to decide on Dewan Rakyat leader (16/03/08)
GEORGE TOWN: The Opposition coalition will meet soon to decide on who will become the Opposition leader in parliament. DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said they needed to discuss this matter with the other parties in the coalition.
“This is not just about one party,” he said. “There needs to be support from two of the three main parties in the coalition to choose the Opposition leader. We will discuss this at another time, but for now the three parties are still busy forming the state governments.
“Our priority is now on the formation of the state governments,” he said at a press conference after launching the DAP National Leadership Convention here yesterday.
The convention was attended by party advisor Lim Kit Siang, national chairman Karpal Singh, life advisor Dr Chen Man Hin and the party’s state assemblyman and assemblywomen and members of parliament.
Lim said the Opposition leader would need to get support from all the parliamentarians and did not rule out the possibility of the leader having the highest number of votes being chosen.
However, he noted that he did not want to speculate as they wanted to reach a consensus with the other parties.
“We should be able to reach a consensus,” he said.
Lim said they would not make any announcements yet until the coalition had completed the formation of state governments in Perak and Selangor.
The Opposition coalition, comprising DAP, PKR and Pas secured a total of 82 out of the 222 parliamentary seats in the just-concluded general election. PKR secured the most with 31 seats, followed by DAP (28) and Pas (23), thus denying Barisan Nasional its two-thirds majority in parliament.
Earlier, Dr Chen, in his speech said DAP parliamentarians and state assemblymen would need to change their mindsets and work together with their partners PKR and Pas.
He described the three-party coalition as a wise and strategic move.
“Be co-operative with other parties. Keep the relationship among Pas and PKR going,” he said. “If we have that, we are guaranteed of a better future,” he told the leaders present.
He said Penang can be a model state for the other states, as success here as a multi-racial state would mean that the future is assured.
During the convention, DAP celebrated its 42 years of party establishment with the cutting of a cake.
