DAP Perak Deputy Speaker, Hee Yit Foong: Is she an Unreliable Opportunist Who Should NEVER be Trusted by Voters in Her Constituency to Stay in DAP?

Will She Blackmail the Pakatan Rakyat Perak State Government with Defection to MCA ?

DAP State Representative for JELAPANG (N.31)

Jelapang is a town in Kinta district, Perak, Malaysia. Hee Yit Foong was the first disabled woman to become the speaker of a Malaysian legislative body. She carries a limp from a case of polio she contracted at the age of 4. In the 2008 General Election she won the Jelapang State seat of 26,157 voters with a 6,707 majority.

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Speculation is also rife that Hee Yit Fong, the deputy state assembly speaker and a DAP assemblyman is considering a defection to MCA.

According to reports in Malaysian Insider , she wants to leave DAP because she does not get along with Nga Kor Ming, a DAP state exco member and Ngeh Koo Ham, the Perak DAP boss and senior exco member. She is supposed to be meeting with MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat to discuss handover terms.

Although reiterating that she has never entertained any intention to defect to BN or to leave the DAP, she expressed doubt over her future.

“I intend to stay, but will they eliminate me? This is not my first day in DAP, and I would be heavy-hearted about leaving the party,” she said.

However, talk of Hee defecting from DAP to MCA is NOT new.

Speculation emerged last May, but she has remained in the party.It is an open secret that Hee has not been on good terms with DAP state leaders, in particular the Ngeh-Nga cousins - Perak DAP chief Ngeh Koo Ham and secretary Nga Kor Ming. Read here for more

But some Perak DAP members claim that they are unfazed by the speculation regarding Hee because they claim all DAP lawmakers had signed an undated resignation letter which would be executed in the event any legislator crosses over to another party.

With the Perak state government tottering on the brink, the kingmakers are the Perak palace, in the long-term, and for now a politically estranged woman — DAP's Jelapang representative Hee Yit Foong who, now that the two PKR Exco members have flown the coop, holds the magical one-seat balance in the state assembly.

Whether the PKR duo — Behrang assemblyman Jamaluddin Mat Radzi and Changkat Jering Assemblyman Osman Jailu — defect to Umno or prefer to be called independents, the fact is Pakatan Rakyat cannot rely on them anymore.

With them gone the PR government survives on a one-seat majority in the 59-seat state assembly and was in fact written off yesterday after Hee "disappeared" for over 12 hours, leaving DAP leaders sweating and desperately trying to locate her.

Hee Yit Fong coolly emerged, only to slam DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng for threatening to vacate her seat and force a by-election.

She demanded an apology from secretary-general Lim Guan Eng for saying that party representative in the state who are incommunicado for more than 24 hours without reason will find their seats vacated.

She told a press conference at her house last night that she is disappointed with the warning by Guan Eng, made when two PKR state assemblypersons were said to have gone ‘missing’ over the weekend.

While Guan Eng may have been making a pre-emptive strike, it has not gone down well with Hee who herself was deemed to have ‘disappeared’ briefly yesterday, thereby adding to speculation that she too would cross over to Barisan Nasional.

“I don’t understand how he views the state’s representatives. The statement is unfair to me. Usually problems within the party will be solved among members, not through a public statement,” said Hee.

Hee explained that she had been in her house in Ipoh for most of yesterday, only leaving the premises from 3 to 6pm.

She also said she had switched off her handphone because she was “not feeling well”, which was also the reason why she failed to attend yesterday's meeting called by Mentri Besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin.

“I live here in Ipoh, but no one from the party came looking for me (at my house). They could have contacted my husband, but no one did. I thought everything was in order,” said Hee, who is also Perak deputy speaker.

Hee said she only found out what was going on when she found reporters at her door, upon returning in the evening.

"He (Guan Eng) should have some confidence in me," Hee said at a midnight press conference at her home. But given the current turmoil, trust and confidence is definitely missing and that is because the katak culture of defections and counter-defections is taking root. Read here for more

From today the PR government in Perak is at the mercy of Perak Deputy House Speaker Hee Yit Foong or any other assemblyman — on both sides of the divide — who has the gumption to exploit the situation and advance themselves — financially, socially and politically.