No room for two tigers in Penang
With the general election imminent, the worsening feud between DAP deputy secretary-general Dr P. Ramasamy and national chairman Karpal Singh has put the party in a dilemma. There is no place for two leaders in Penang, so one has to go.
By Baradan Kuppusamy, The Star
The DAP is in a dilemma on the “eve” of the crucial general election, with the feud between deputy secretary-general Dr P. Ramasamy, who is also deputy Penang Chief Minister II, and national chairman Karpal Singh worsening.
Like two tigers on one small hill, there is no place for both. One has to go.
Removing Dr Ramasamy will satisfy Karpal but it will cause the party to bleed the support of Indians voters, which is decidedly swinging back to Barisan Nasional.
But acting against Karpal, ie asking him to retire, is going against the conscience of the party itself although leaders are sore with his numerous statements in recent years on hudud, party hopping and the “one man, one seat” rule.
Party powerbrokers – largely adviser Lim Kit Siang and his son, secretary-general Lim Guan Eng – had attempted to nip the feud by asking their men in the disciplinary committee to “acquit” Dr Ramasamy, sources said.
They, however, did not anticipate the fierce opposition of the strong-willed Karpal and the many traditional Indian DAP supporters in Penang, alienated by Dr Ramasamy and who are now up in arms against the professor.
Dr Ramasamy was one of the first academics to join the DAP, which he did in 2007 after being allegedly sidelined by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, where he taught for over 30 years.
Although he taught political science, he was a political novice and was fielded against heavyweight Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon in the Batu Kawan parliamentary seat.
His supporters, worried Dr Ramasamy might lose, persuaded Karpal to field him in the Prai state seat as well.
Carried by the 2008 tsunami, Dr Ramasamy won both seats and was made a Deputy Chief Minister.
Karpal, despite differences with Guan Eng, goes a long way back to 1978 with the elder Lim.
He always stood by Kit Siang when party rebels tried to take the stalwart on.
In the 1998 KOKS (Knock Out Kit Siang) campaign, when party rebels Wee Choo Keong, Liew Ah Kim and Fung Ket Wing accused Kit Siang of nepotism and cronyism, they were all expelled.
Karpal had been quiet and biding his time while the disciplinary committee went through the motions of clearing Dr Ramasamy – as it had for Perak secretary Nga Kor Meng – of corruption.
The fact that Karpal and his two allies – Seri Delima assemblyman R.S.N. Rayer and Bagan Dalam assemblyman A. Thanasekaran – were conspicuously missing at a big fundraiser on Tuesday, should have indicated an eruption coming.
Karpal called a press conference, significantly on March 18, the anniversary date of the DAP (which was formally registered on March 18,1966), to lambast the party’s disciplinary committee and described their decision as null and void.
“The proceedings are void ab initio (null and void from the beginning),” charged the country’s most famous lawyer.
“The seeds of destruction were already planted in the panel, particularly when the other three sat in judgment over one of their own,” Karpal said.
(Dr Ramasamy, one of the disciplinary committee members, had recused himself when his case was being heard.)
Rayer and Thanasekaran had appealed to the party’s central executive committee (CEC), a 30-member body filled with Kit Siang’s men and women, except for a handful.
The matter can even go to the party’s general congress if either party is unhappy but Karpal would want the matter not to be prolonged.
Party sources said he would be satisfied if the “Ramasamy-matter” is somehow reversed at the CEC and he is found guilty of organising a demonstration.
Dr Ramasamy parachuted into Penang with the blessings of Kit Siang and started building his own “team” from ex-MIC and newly joined members, ignoring the older DAP grassroots that had welcomed a professor in 2007 with open arms.
A lifelong leftist, he also went into the Penang Hindu Endowment Board as its chairman, and along with his appointees in the board, became subjects of great controversies with rebels questioning every move he makes.
Now, according to Karpal, these people have been asked to resign from the board.
The “Ramasamy-affair” is best settled, DAP sources said, by removing Dr Ramasamy from Penang and fielding him outside the state, thus removing one tiger away from the other.
