When contacted, Sng was reticent when asked about the rumours but stopped short of denying them, saying he would make an announcement “in good time”.

He told FMT: “There will be a proper announcement later with the appropriate designation.”

FMT has also sought comment from Liu. The former Sungai Pelek assemblyman left DAP in June 2023 due to dissatisfaction with the leadership’s move to amend the party’s constitution regarding the termination of memberships.

The amendment allowed for DAP elected representatives to automatically lose their membership if they do not toe the party line on fundamental issues, which Liu contended was undemocratic.

The former Selangor executive councillor had been a DAP member for 41 years, serving as a member of its central executive committee for several terms. He was assemblyman for Pandamaran from 2008 to 2013 and represented Sungai Pelek from 2018 to 2022.

He was known to be an outspoken figure in DAP and had been chided by Hannah Yeoh and Tony Pua in 2021 after saying the party should not “dilute its Chineseness“.

Liu was also openly critical of Dr Mahathir Mohamad when he led the Pakatan Harapan government from 2018 until its collapse in February 2020.