In the Chinese Press: DAP delegates want check and balance
Chan Wei See, fz.com
The results of the DAP re-election suggest that the delegates wish to have check and balance of power in the central executive committee (CEC), China Press said.
Its writer Yu Pei Ni opined that the change in ranking in the 17 CEC members sends out a clear message that the delegates want to provide check and balance to the party leadership – which is still very much intact.
DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang who is also party adviser, dropped to number two from previously being at the top with reduced votes (171) while secretary-general Lim Guan Eng dived from the second position to number five ranking with 272 votes – down from the previous election.
National deputy chairman Tan Kok Wai had the sixth highest number of votes in the 2012 election but this time he dropped out of the top-10 chart to be ranked 16th, Yu wrote.
It was the total opposite for Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong who was at 14 before as he rose to the top with the highest votes this election.
This was an unexpected outcome as he is not a senior member, Yu observed. DAP national legal bureau chairman Gobind Singh Deo, Tanjong MP Chow Kon Yeow and Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari also won the election with a surge of votes.
Yu also noted that the result evidently showed an anti-Lims sentiment.
“Of course, it is a mission impossible to topple the Lims (Kit Siang and Guan Eng), the delegates can just tell the secretary-general with their ballots that DAP’s success cannot happen with one or two persons’ effort alone, it is rather a collective achievement of all grassroot members nationwide throughout the last few decades,” she said.
Looking at the “menus” distributed at the DAP Special Congress, China Press further reported an alternative fraction in DAP Penang disapproving of Guan Eng and his team members namely national vice-chairperson Teresa Kok, Liew, deputy secretary-general Anthony Loke, Zairil, Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching and Gobind who is also Puchong MP.
Meanwhile, it pointed out a split in the Perak DAP in which the fraction led by former DAP election publicity chief Hew Kuan Yew wished to bring down Perak leaders Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham and Nga Kor Ming in the re-election.
Hew, widely known as ‘Superman’, openly criticised Ngeh and Nga on Facebook and urged the delegates to vote them out prior to the re-election.
