The Malaysian Insight

ZULKIFLI Mohd Noor, a former DAP national vice-chairman, has died.

He died of a heart attack in Sg Petani early this morning, his former colleague from the People’s Alternative Party (PAP), Rahmad Isahak said.

“Heart (ailment)... I was told he died about 1am in a Sg Petani hospital today.

“His remains will be brought home to Penang. His house is in Taman Sahabat in Gertak Sanggul. He should arrive some time after 10.30am.

“I am not sure of the funeral arrangements yet,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Zulkifli was 71, a father of two sons and a daughter, and a grandfather of five.

He was a DAP veteran of 26 years, who experienced the ups and downs in the former opposition party. He was also one of the few notable Malay leaders in the predominantly Chinese party.

Apart from vice-chairman, he was also once the party’s deputy secretary-general.

He was fielded as candidate in several general elections but never won. Ironically in the 2008 general election, which saw DAP take over the Penang government the first time, he was not fielded.

Instead, Zulkifli was given other positions in the DAP-led state administration. He was appointed a councillor at the then Penang Island Municipal Council.

In 2013, when DAP was ordered to hold a re-election for its central executive committee following a technical glitch in December 2012 that rendered the first results invalid, Zulkifli declared he was running for the party chairmanship.

He said that what he was doing was “rational if the party was truly serious about practicing democracy based on multiculturalism”. He said he believed DAP could not get strong Malay support because it did not value its own Malay leaders.

Shortly after losing in the re-election, Zulkifli resigned as Bayan Baru DAP division chief, but remained a party member. He also quit his director post at the state agency Penang Global Tourism.

In the months leading to his resignations, he had become more critical of DAP and the state government led by the then chief minister Lim Guan Eng – DAP’s powerful secretary-general – accusing the administration of not standing by the people and ruling with an “iron fist” that benefitted the elites.

In 2014, Zulkifli quit DAP and went on to form his own party, PAP. While leading PAP as president, he continued to criticise DAP and the state government. But as a new and small party, PAP achieved little.

PAP then suffered internal troubles, which led Zulkifli and 24 others, including Rahmad who was party organising secretary, to quit the party in February last year.

He said there were certain groups that were trying to sabotage PAP that was built on a multiracial platform. – January 28, 2019.