State polls: DAP being ruled by ’emperor’, a danger to democracy in Penang, says incumbent rep

BUTTERWORTH: A DAP lawmaker has claimed that the party is being dictated by one person and there’s no democracy.

Incumbent Bagan Dalam assemblyman M. Satees, 28, said this following the announcement of DAP candidates for the upcoming state polls on Tuesday (July 25).

Satees, who has not been named as a candidate, said the leader acted like an “emperor” as almost all candidates in the list were aligned with him and not with the state chairman Chow Kon Yeow.

“I feel like we in Penang face a danger to our democracy when the decision was made by the ’emperor’, the list that was announced yesterday was not agreed by the state party,” he said during a press conference at his service centre here on Wednesday (July 26).

The first-term assemblyman said he had no issues with the renewal process within the party but questioned whether the renewal exercise was only applicable to those who support the “emperor”.

Without naming who is the “emperor”, Satees likened the person to a dictator who utilised the party for his own needs.

He said he was not frustrated for not being named as a candidate but said he was disappointed with the way the party was handled and manipulated by certain individuals.

Satees further claimed the other reason he was not being named as a candidate was because he was among the DAP leaders who had stated their support for Chow.

Besides him, those who did not make it on the candidates’ list were deputy chief minister II Dr P. Ramasamy, Chong Eng, Phee Boon Poh, Yeoh Soon Hin, Soon Lip Chee and Chris Lee, who is said to be ill.

On July 25, DAP officially announced the names of 19 candidates, including seven new faces, who will be fielded in the Penang state election on Aug 12.