‘Umno more democratic than DAP’
The struggles of DAP revolves around maintaining continuity of the Lim Dynasty, claims Semut.
Athi Shankar, FMT
An NGO leader today claimed that Umno had been far more liberal and democratic than the DAP.
Sensible & Ethical Malaysian United Team (Semut) president Huan Cheng Guan said unlike the DAP, Umno has held direct elections with, for and by members for all positions in the party.
In the DAP however, he said office-bearers were chosen by a 20-member central executive committee (CEC), which had been elected by delegates.
“Technically, a CEC member who may have finished at 20th position, needed only 11 votes to hold a top position like chairman and secretary-general,” he said in a press statement here today.
Compared to DAP, he said Umno does not sack any member without holding an internal inquiry, in which the affected person would be given all avenues to defend.
But, he said scores of DAP members had been expelled without even showcause letters.
Between 1968 until today, he pointed out that Umno had had six presidents, while the DAP only lived under a single dynastic rule.
During the same period, he said Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang had held a world record by commanding a party for 45 years, including the 27 years as its secretary-general.
Even though many leaders of his time have quit active politics, he said Kit Siang still has not called it a day, merely to safeguard his interests and hegemony in DAP.
Huan cited the political saga of Kerk Kim Hock, former DAP secretary-general, as a fine example of Lim Dynasty’s hegemony.
He further said that Kit Siang wants to place his son, Guan Eng, in the strongest position possible to continue their family dynasty in the DAP.
“Others in DAP are there only to serve their dynasty,” rebuked Huan.
Unlike the DAP, he said Umno and even other parties do not deploy schoolboy tactics in blaming the error in tabulations of votes as a technical glitch.
He cautioned the DAP that it was important for its re-election scheduled for this Sunday Sept 29 to be “free, fair and clean.”
“The party can’t ill-afford another botched electoral process. Then its political relevance will be gone forever.
“But then it will also end the unwanted dynastic hegemony,” Huan said.
