PETALING JAYA: A DAP leader, stunned by the party’s dismal showing in the Melaka state polls, has called on Pakatan Harapan chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to step down as Opposition leader.

       Pahang DAP secretary Lee Chin Chen, who is also Bilut assemblyman, urged Pakatan to find a new successor and not rely solely on Anwar.

       He claimed that the PKR president failed to lead the Opposition bloc during the recent Melaka polls.

       “Let me explain my argument: I hope Anwar can let go of the leadership baton, support behind the scenes and help the new leaders achieve greater heights.

       “I call on Anwar to step down as Opposition leader so that Pakatan can choose a new successor.

       “Let us explore new directions and consensus as soon as possible,” he said in a post on Facebook yesterday.

       “If there is no hope for the Pakatan leadership to make changes, the top leaders of DAP must consider withdrawing from the alliance and find other ways to cooperate with each other.

       “Before this, Pakatan had been obsessed with the numbers game for more than a year. If we fail to stop this after the Melaka state election defeat and review our direction, things will not be positive for the upcoming Sarawak election as well as the next general election,” he said.

       Lee said the Melaka state election defeat was a blow to Pakatan.

       “Pakatan has signed an MOU with the Federal Government that there should be no party hopping. They should not have accepted the ‘frogs’ in the state polls,” he added.

       Meanwhile, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has deemed it counterproductive to zero in on any single personality for Pakatan’s poor showing in the Malacca polls.

       The Iskandar Puteri MP said in a post that Pakatan and its leaders needed to continue on the path of equal sharing in decision-making while admitting that allowing defectors to contest on a Pakatan ticket was a blunder.

       Barisan Nasional achieved a landslide victory by winning 21 seats and obtaining a two-thirds majority in the state assembly.

       Pakatan only managed to win five seats, with DAP losing four of the eight seats it contested. PKR lost all 11 seats it contested.