‘Guan Eng, Kit Siang should step down’
PORT KLANG: A former Penang DAP branch chairman has called on the party’s secretary-general Lim Guan Eng to step down from the post as the party’s 2012 central executive committee (CEC) election was declared invalid by the Registrar of Societies (RoS).
G. Asoghan, who was the chairman of Bagan Luar DAP, said Guan Eng had failed in his role to ensure fairness and transparency in the CEC election in 2012.
The re-election ordered by RoS, claimed Asoghan, was called again in 2013 but there were also claims of fraud at the time because there was a spike in the number of delegates from 120 branches which were “plucked out of nowhere”, leaving them unhappy.
“The call by the RoS in August for DAP to conduct yet another CEC re-election proves that the party’s top leadership has failed to make the right decisions from the very beginning.
“One would think that they would take steps to mend the situation and make it a fair and clean re-election, but that did not happen.
“That is why the CEC has been declared invalid and DAP should not fault RoS because the leadership had failed to solve the problem. DAP should not point its finger at the delegates or even the RoS in this matter. They only have themselves to blame.
“Guan Eng, as the party secretary-general, should quit his post because of the doubtful 2012 CEC election and the suspicious re-election. (DAP adviser Lim) Kit Siang should be held accountable too,” he said here yesterday.
Asoghan, who joined DAP in 1992, also called for the party to publicise the 2012 CEC election delegates list, to be used for the re-election, in the print media.
This was important, he said, to ensure that the re-election would not be open to question.
“All details — the names of the delegates eligible to vote, branches and states as well as their MyKad — should be advertised in newspapers of different languages so that there will be no dispute or confusion by any other parties. This is to ensure transparency as we do not want fraud to happen during the re-election process.
“Our repeated calls for the list to be made public have been ignored. We will give the party till the end of October to act on it, failing which we will take action which will eventually force them to do it,” said Asoghan, without elaborating.
He said the re-election counting process should also be done in front of delegates. He said an independent audit firm should be given the responsibility to oversee the counting process.
Meanwhile, Bagan Dalam DAP life member Lily Retnam criticised lawyers within the party for defending the top leaders but made no effort to “make right” the invalid 2012 CEC election.
She asked what the party’s lawyers were doing to mend the situation, which had been dragging on for months.
“The party’s inaction is evident as repeated calls by grassroots members and delegates for the 2012 CEC delegates’ list to be made public for the re-election have not been acted on, even now.
“What are they (lawyers) doing for the party? That is our question. It looks like they are ill advising Kit Siang and Guan Eng. We ask that they do not continue to breach the law and embarrass the party.
“Kit Siang and Guan Eng should not continue to lead if they cannot respect the party’s constitution. They keep calling for fair and clean general elections for the country, but what about the party’s? They should ensure DAP’s election is transparent and fair first.”