BUTTERWORTH: DAP members who disagree with the party’s move in working with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad are free to leave the party.

DAP deputy secretary-general P. Ramasamy said that the objections to the union by several DAP members did not reflect the party’s sentiment as a whole.

He said DAP’s cooperation with Dr Mahathir did not mean the party had abandoned its principles, and downplayed it as a strategy to win the coming general election.

“Politics is about what is possible. We need to make sure we can win in the next election. What is so bad about that?

“We are not forsaking our principles,” Ramasamy was quoted as saying by Free Malaysia Today in its report today.

Ramasamy was thought to be commenting on the resignation of one of its members, Shamser Singh Thind, who had quit the party last week following DAP’s dalliance with Dr Mahathir.

Shamser had said the late Karpal Singh would not have stood for it, and urged DAP to demand that Dr Mahathir apologise to the party for his past attacks against them.

Shamser had also noted the numerous allegations that longtime DAP leader Lim Kit Siang had leveled against Dr Mahathir in the past.

Ramasamy, meanwhile, argued that many other opposition leaders – including Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim – had suffered under Dr Mahathir in the past but had since forgiven the former prime minister.