Former Johor DAP deputy chairman resigns from party

Former Johor DAP deputy chairman Norman Fernandez has confirmed resigning from the party, with immediate effect, two days after a decision by the state party leadership to refer him to its disciplinary committee.

"Yes, I have resigned," he told Bernama when contacted here Tuesday.

According to him, his decision to resign from DAP was conveyed to party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, via a brief letter Monday.

The letter's contents were made available to Bernama.

"Realising that to continue my membership with the party will only constrain and inhibit my freedom to express my views forthright and also be critical of the party, particularly the party's continued alliance with an extremist Pas," he said in the letter.

Fernandez, a lawyer, said he honestly believed he had made the right decision to resign from DAP.

"Acknowledging that no man is above the party, save maybe for a few, I am of the honest belief that I made the correct decision," he said in the said letter to Guan Eng.

Fernandez's move to resign from the party was prompted by a decision by the Johor DAP to refer him to the party's disciplinary committee.

On July 6, Johor DAP secretary Gan Peck Cheng, who is also Penggaram state assemblyman, in a media statement said the state committee had voted a motion to refer Fernandez to the party's discplinary committee.

Eight out of 20 DAP state committee members voted for the motion, while two abstained, she said.

The motion said Gan was prompted by three recent Facebook posts by Fernandez which compromised the party's image in the eyes of the public.