Teo Nie Ching recalls ‘weird’ time she had to wave BN flag

PETALING JAYA: DAP’s Teo Nie Ching tonight recalled the “strange and weird” moment when she campaigned for bitter rivals-turned-allies, Barisan Nasional, in the Mahkota by-election two years ago when highlighting her party’s commitment to its partners.

The Johor DAP chairman said she had represented the party at BN’s machinery launch for the state polls.

“When BN representatives asked me to sit on stage, I went up. When BN representatives gave me a ‘dacing’ flag, I also held it,” she said, referring to the coalition’s logo.

“Why did I do that? It was not that I did not feel a little strange or weird, but this was to prove that DAP is a sincere partner,” she said at the party’s unveiling of its candidates for the upcoming Johor polls in Kluang today.

Teo said DAP went all out to campaign for BN in Mahkota despite Pakatan Harapan and BN not forming a unity government in Johor.

She said DAP did not use the absence of PH representatives in the state government as an excuse to boycott the by-election.

“That is who we are. We are not two-faced and we do not fake it,” Teo said, adding that DAP campaigned for BN in Mahkota because it wanted the unity government to succeed.

Teo’s comments come in the wake of the spat between DAP and BN triggered by Johor BN chief Onn Hafiz Ghazi’s remarks that he would rather not hold the menteri besar’s post than sit at the same table with DAP.

BN and DAP — a Pakatan Harapan component — are partners in Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government and have cooperated in elections since November 2022.

The Johor polls will be held on July 11, with nominations set for June 27. This time around, both BN and PH would be contesting in all 56 seats separately.