Anthony Loke has announced his resignation as transport minister. The DAP secretary-general made the announcement at a press conference at the party’s headquarters today, describing it as DAP’s response to recent political developments.
Loke said he will submit his resignation letter to prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim shortly. The decision was reached after a central executive committee (CEC) meeting that ran for nearly three hours this afternoon.
“DAP’s position is expressed through my resignation as transport minister. I will submit the letter to the prime minister in the near future,” he said, as reported by Astro Awani.
The resignation involves Loke alone – the party’s other ministers and deputy ministers will remain in the unity government. Loke said they had all expressed willingness to give up their posts at any time, but the CEC decided they should stay on to preserve political stability and avoid the Anwar administration losing its majority, adding that DAP is aware certain quarters are waiting for the party to leave the government in the hope of triggering instability or a change of administration.
As for the transport ministry, Loke indicated an orderly handover. “Ministers come and go, the ministry will function as usual. I will need some time because there is some outstanding work, I will discuss with the prime minister. Surely, projects that are already ongoing will continue, because the ministry won’t stop functioning,” he said, per The Star. No successor has been named yet.
Loke has been the face of Malaysian transport policy across two stints in the role – 2018 to 2020 under Pakatan Harapan, and from December 2022 in the current unity government.
His first term gave motorists the liberalised window tint rules of 2019, which allowed darker rear windows for all, as well as the mandatory use of child seats from January 2020.
The second term leaned into digitalisation – the switch to digital road tax and driving licences via the MyJPJ app, plus an announced revamp of the Kejara demerit points system with MyJPJ integration and blacklisting for repeat offenders.
There were structural changes too. Puspakom’s decades-long vehicle inspection monopoly was ended, with three new inspection companies appointed in February 2025 – and along the way, Puspakom itself was made to end multiple slot bookings to weed out runners; the Vehicle Entry Permit was finally enforced on Singapore vehicles after years of deferments; and the Teksi Madani taxi renewal programme put red Proton S70 cabs on our roads, expanding to Sabah just last week.
On the infrastructure file, the Johor Bahru-Singapore RTS Link entered its testing phase last month, and Loke pledged that the ECRL would be ready by Hari Raya Aidilfitri next year. Urban rail reliability improved markedly on his watch, with LRT and MRT disruptions down from 177 incidents in 2022 to just 12 in the first five months of this year, while projects like the new Seremban Sentral station and the federally-funded Johor E-ART are still in the works.
More recently, he spoke of introducing a compensation mechanism for road accident victims and a trade-in subsidy scheme for old motorcycles – initiatives whose fate now passes to whoever takes over the portfolio.
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