Anthony Loke Quits Cabinet, Four Other DAP Leaders Stay On

Anthony Loke resigned as Transport Minister today (19 Sep) in protest over Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s house arrest order — and in the same breath, confirmed that every other DAP minister would remain in their posts.

Anthony Loke/Najib Razak

In Brief

DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke resigned from cabinet following Najib's house arrest pardon, while the party's four other ministers remained in government.
Nga Kor Ming, who publicly promised to resign if Najib was freed, has not followed through and remains in cabinet.

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DAP held an emergency Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting today (19 Sep), and it lasted three hours.

When it ended, secretary-general and Transport Minister Anthony Loke walked to a microphone and announced his resignation.

The four other DAP cabinet ministers did not resign with him.

As a party, we have a stand, we feel this is difficult to accept for DAP and many Malaysians.

He added that the party respects the king’s constitutional power to grant such a pardon.

The pardon in question was granted on Friday (18 Sep) by the Federal Territories Pardons Board, chaired by the King, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar.

Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was granted house arrest in place of his remaining prison sentence, subject to payment of a RM50 million fine.

The fine has not been paid.

One Out, Four In

The DAP ministers who remain in cabinet are:

Gobind Singh Deo — Digital Minister
Hannah Yeoh — Federal Territories Minister
Steven Sim — Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister
Nga Kor Ming — Housing and Local Government Minister

Loke framed their continued presence as a matter of political stability.

DAP holds 40 seats in Malaysia’s 222-member Dewan Rakyat — the largest bloc within the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition.

Analysts had previously noted that a full DAP cabinet withdrawal would pose a serious threat to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s administration and could force an early general election.

Anwar’s unity government draws support from 76 PH MPs, 30 from Barisan Nasional (BN), 23 from Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), eight from Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS), and seven other government-aligned lawmakers.

UMNO, whose public fundraising campaign for Najib’s RM50 million fine raised more than RM634,000 within the first three hours of launch — with individual donations as low as RM10 — is BN’s anchor party.

UMNO holds seven cabinet seats.

The RM50 million fine has not been paid — and until it is, observers note, Najib is no longer in Kajang Prison but not yet formally free either.

@widmubin Najib Razak bukan bebas. Beliau menjalani baki tahanan di rumah "House Arrest". Yang geng² PH merentan² ni kenapa? Apa masalah korang? #fyp #fyppppppppppppppppppppppp #solidariti #najibrazak #pakatanharapan ♬ Cyber City – GangstaCrew

One Promise, One Name

Before the Johor state election, Nga stated publicly that he would resign from his ministerial post if BN won big in Johor and if Najib was freed.

BN performed strongly in Johor.

Najib left Kajang Prison under a house arrest order on Friday (18 Sep).

Nga remains in cabinet as of Saturday evening.

Yeoh sits on the pardons board that granted Najib’s house arrest order; she also remains in cabinet.

DAP has stated that it respects the king’s prerogative to grant pardons under the federal constitution.

Last month, DAP delegates voted overwhelmingly for its ministers and deputy ministers to remain in government — following the party’s loss in all eight seats it contested in the November 2025 Sabah state election.

Saturday’s outcome marks the second time within weeks that DAP has faced an internal test on whether to remain in Anwar’s cabinet.

On both occasions, the answer was yes — with one exception, on Saturday, of its own secretary-general.