‘If they’re brave, they don’t need to tell me to resign’: Ruling party member challenges leadership to fire him

MALAYSIA: The party of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is still bleeding with Members of Parliament (MPs) defying leaders and mingling with breakaway group members in public.

One such MP, Wong Chen, was seen at a rally of the Bersama Party (Malaysian United Party), formed by former Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli. Wong gave a speech at the rally, which runs counter to the People’s Justice Party’s (PKR) principles.

As a member of PKR, an MP representing the party in Parliament, Wong should not give a speech at an opposing party’s event.

Pre-empting attacks from the party’s grassroots amid calls for him to leave the party and resign as the Subang MP, Wong challenged PKR to expel him from the party.

Wong Chen stressed that there is no need to wait for him to resign as an MP; instead, the party can simply expel him if it has grounds to do so.

“If they’re brave, they don’t need to tell me to resign. They want me to resign because they’re afraid. If six Members of Parliament leave, they’ll be finished (done for),” he said.

“There is no need to wait for me to resign as a Member of Parliament, just expel me,” he said in a Facebook post.

He uploaded a video of himself on Facebook attending and speaking at the Negeri Sembilan Kancil Tour programme organised by Parti Bersama Malaysia.

In his speech, he revealed that he had received a show-cause letter from PKR’s Disciplinary Bureau for attending a political direction programme by former PKR Deputy President, Rafizi Ramli, last May.

Chen added that if he is fired from the party, he could continue serving as a Member of Parliament for the people of Subang.

He is reported to be one of six PKR MPs who attended the “Rafizi Political Direction” programme in May, together with former Economy Minister and former PKR Vice-President, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, who has since resigned from the party and as an MP.

On 27 May, Wong Chen said he was abruptly removed as the non-executive chairman of Malaysia Debt Ventures (MDV).

In a statement, Wong said he was informed of the Ministry of Finance’s (MoF) decision a day before the firing.

Subsequently, his parliamentary office was denied access to the MyKhas Portal, a government-managed system used to process constituency allocations and Projek Mesra Rakyat applications.

In a statement on May 22, Wong said the disruption was discovered on May 20 when his officer attempted to upload PMR funding applications for schools in the Subang constituency.