THE decision to maintain Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) cooperation in the Penang state government was reached by consensus and reflected the collective position of all PH component parties, including DAP, said Penang PH chairman Chow Kon Yeow.
Chow, who is also Penang Chief Minister, stressed that the decision was not made unilaterally but was agreed upon at a meeting of the Penang PH Leadership Council after each component party had discussed the matter internally and presented its position.
"So, this was a decision made by the PH Leadership Council that I chaired. At the meeting, the chairmen of AMANAH, PKR and DAP, after holding their respective party meetings, presented their positions to maintain the PH-BN cooperation in Penang, which involves only one EXCO position.
"After hearing the views of each party, the PH Leadership Council made a decision in line with the wishes of the respective parties. This was a consensus decision involving all PH parties, and I believe each chairman who attended represented their respective party," he said.
Chow said there was therefore no issue surrounding the decision, as it reflected the respective positions of the component parties and had been endorsed by the Penang PH Leadership Council.
"So there is no issue regarding this decision. This is indeed the position of each respective party and it was endorsed by the Penang PH Leadership Council," he said when met after the Penang Chief Minister’s Tour programme at the Seberang Jaya Public Market in Butterworth today.
Chow was responding to a statement by DAP adviser Lim Guan Eng, who had recommended that he convene another internal meeting of DAP Penang delegates to discuss the unconditional support given by the Penang PH leadership to UMNO’s role in the state government.
Lim, in a statement posted on his Facebook account yesterday, also said Chow had the right to maintain his decision to cooperate with UMNO despite UMNO playing a major role in the defeat of DAP secretary-general Loke Siew Fook in the Chennah state seat during the recent Negeri Sembilan state election.
Asked whether DAP Penang had previously held an internal meeting on continuing the PH-BN cooperation, Chow said he was not a member of the DAP Penang committee.
However, he said DAP Penang chairman Steven Sim had conveyed the party’s position during the Penang PH meeting.
"I am not part of the DAP Penang committee, but its chairman, Steven, reported the same position as the Penang AMANAH chairman, Muhammad Faiz Fadzil, and the chairman of the PKR State Leadership Council, Datuk Dr Mohamad Abdul Hamid.
"They expressed the same and unified position, so the state PH made the decision to maintain the cooperation," he said. - August 15, 2026
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