PRIME Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob must be more assertive and consistent in his stance as to when the 15th general election (GE15) will be held, Anthony Loke said.

The DAP secretary-general said Ismail should not give “flip-flop” messages that will only lead to continued political instability and harm the country’s economic situation.

“The decision to advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to dissolve Parliament is at the discretion of the prime minister,” he said in a post on Facebook today.

“This very important decision should not be influenced by unrelated parties who are only concerned with their political survival.”

Loke was referring to Ismail’s interview with Japanese media Nikkei, which was aired last Monday, where he stated that the elections would not be held in the near future as the cost of living for the people needs to be addressed.

“However, in just 48 hours, he changed his tone while speaking at the Barisan Nasional (BN) Convention yesterday. 

“He said he would not wait one more second to dissolve Parliament if BN was ready after being pushed and pressured by kleptocratic clusters to dissolve Parliament.”

This comes as the Umno leadership keeps calling for the elections to be held as soon as possible.

Loke said Ismail must give a clearer political message to the people.

“If he really wants to address the issue of inflation, instead of calling elections in the near future, then he, as prime minister, needs to find consensus across parties so that the entire national focus is on the agenda of helping the people,” he said.

Loke also said DAP has never been worried about facing elections.

“If Parliament is dissolved, DAP is ready with its Pakatan Harapan partners to enter the arena and campaign as hard as possible (in GE15).” – June 2, 2022.