INCUMBENT Bentong lawmaker Wong Tack has announced that he will be defending the seat in the coming general election as an independent.

His announcement came just hours after his party, DAP, had announced former Ketari assemblyman Young Syefura Othman as the candidate for the parliamentary seat.

The activist turned politician said he was informed by DAP that he would not fit into the party’s “grand strategy” for the general election.

He was absorbed to stand under the DAP banner in the last polls following his environmental activism, which he had undertaken through Himpunan Hijau, an environmental group he chairs.

He said there was a 2013 agreement between DAP and Himpunan Hijau on environmental campaign, which included the closure of the Lynas plant in Kuantan.

“Today, the DAP has decided to end this understanding. I wish to make clear that the people decide their own paths and understanding. The choice is ours,” he said.

“I, Wong Tack, will stand in the 15th general election for Bentong on the people’s ticket.”

Wong said he remained committed to serving the people of Bentong.

“The people are not pawns in a game of chess,” he said.

Earlier today, DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke Siew Fook said the party had offered Wong to stand in Cameron Highlands but was rejected by the latter.

In the 2018 polls, Wong defeated the then MCA president and minister Liow Tiong Lai by more than 2,000 votes.

Liow is set to contest in Bentong again in an attempt to win back the seat.

Liow, meanwhile, slammed DAP for replacing Wong as this has denied the voters there a chance to show their disappointment with the incumbent and to vote him out.

“For me, Wong Tack has disappointed Bentong voters and should have been assessed and punished by the voters in the election,” he said.

“Changing candidates at will is DAP’s opportunistic culture that disregards the sanctity and responsibility of an elected rep.” – October 26, 2022.