DAP is bodoh-sombong

By MT Webmaster Last updated Jan 24, 2016

In the previous general election, PAS offered DAP to contest the election under their (PAS) banner. Maybe in the next general election DAP can contest under Amanah’s banner instead considering that Amanah is a DAP proxy anyway.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The Malays have a special term not found in the English language. This term is bodoh-sombong and based on a literal translation means ignorant-arrogant. Basically it refers to someone who is ignorant but it too arrogant to realise that he or she is ignorant and thinks he or she is clever.

The reason why I say that DAP is bodoh-sombong is because they are planning to hold their new party election this year. Actually they cannot hold a new party election because their earlier party election held in 2012 is null and void. So they need to rectify that defective party election first before they can talk about a new party election.

It is like a student wanting to sit for his/her STPM/HSC examination when he/she has failed the SPM/MCE examination. And to make matters worse, he/she failed the SPM/MCE examination because he/she was caught cheating. And when told that he/she needs to re-sit for the SPM/MCE examination, he/she refuses and insists on sitting for the STPM/HSC examination.

On 15th and 16th December 2012, DAP held its party congress cum party election in Penang. The congress was done in a hurry (and quite secretly, too, on top of that) with no public fanfare while the notice to the meeting was sent out within less than ten days.

The total number of delegates eligible to attend the congress was 2,576. However, around 1,300 eligible delegates did not receive their notice to attend the meeting.

Hence only 1,823 delegates attended the congress. However, amongst those 1,823 delegates, 547 were deemed illegal because they were not eligible to attend the congress or to vote in the party election.

So there were three things that were wrong here. First was the inadequate notice period. Next was that not all the eligible delegates received their notice. And, finally, around one-third of the delegates were illegal because they were not eligible to attend the congress or to vote.

When the poll results were announced, Tan Seng Giaw was very furious and he stood up to protest and alleged that the votes had been manipulated. Two weeks later, on 4th January 2013, Tony Pua announced that there was an error in the counting of the votes and he blamed a computer glitch for this error.

On 14th January 2013, a group of DAP members lodged a complaint with the Registrar of Societies (RoS) and alleged that there was fraud in the party election, manipulation of votes, illegal delegates voting in the party election, failure to issue proper notice of the meeting, many eligible delegates not receiving the notice, and so on.

Section 14 (1) of the Societies Act 1966 says that you must file your Annual Returns with the RoS within 60 days. DAP filed its Annual Returns on 8th February 2013 but the Minutes of the Meeting were not included. Hence the Returns were incomplete and had to be rejected.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the issue here is very simple. DAP has to hold its December 2012 party election again. In short, it has to be a re-election and not a new election. Any decision made since December 2012 is null and void because the party election, and hence the committee elected/appointed since then, is also null and void.

Even if DAP sends out a notice for a new party election it would be null and void because it is being done by an illegal committee or secretary. The only way to solve this would be too recall all those 2,576 eligible delegates to the December 2012 congress and hold the party election all over again.

And, this, DAP has refused to do. And, until it does, the party is more or less in limbo. It cannot hold any new party election. It cannot sign any surat watikah for its candidates to contest the next general election under the party banner. And much more.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK