Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook has handed his resignation letter to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, with the resignation due to take effect on the day former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak returns home to serve his house arrest. Loke met Anwar on Monday (28 September) and gave him the letter in person, The Star reported.
Anwar asked him to stay in the post for the time being, and said the timing of the resignation would be decided by the Prime Minister. Loke said he pushed for a fixed deadline instead, so that his continued tenure would not run without an end date.
“I want to stress that my resignation letter has been handed directly to the Prime Minister and I had a discussion with him afterwards. During the discussion, he asked me to continue my duties for the time being,” he told reporters.
Loke, who was at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre to officiate Malaysia Maritime Week 2026 on Tuesday (29 September) (Malay Mail), set out the one date that will end his time in the job.
“So, the timeframe is that on the day Najib returns home, my resignation will take effect. It has not happened yet so I am still serving and there is no replacement yet,” he said. He does not know when that day will be: “Maybe he will be released tomorrow. Who knows? How would we know? I also do not know when he will be released.”
The DAP secretary-general said the decision belongs to the party, which disagrees with the conditional pardon that lets Najib serve the rest of his sentence at home. He said DAP will stay in the federal unity government and its other ministers will continue in the Cabinet.
Najib was granted the conditional pardon on 18 September by the Pardon’s Board. The pardon lets him serve the remainder of his SRC International sentence under house arrest until 23 August 2028, subject to payment of a RM50 million fine. He has been serving a 12-year term at Kajang Prison since 2022, when he was convicted in the SRC International case. An earlier review by the Pardon’s Board in 2024 halved the term to six years and cut the fine from RM210 million.
Loke’s own exit therefore has no calendar date. It hangs on a single event, the return of a former prime minister to his home, and until that happens the transport portfolio stays with him.
