If the DAP is the Titanic, the RoS may be the iceberg
The Third Force
Yesterday, I gave DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng 24 hours to reveal the third reason why he desperately needed PKR to support his snap election proposal (refer http://www.malaysia-today.net/nurul-izzah-checkmates-azmin-ali-and-lim-guan-eng/). His 24 hours are more than up, so let us proceed to a new chapter by discovering how the snap election fiasco is tied to an event that took place on the 15th of December in 2012.
On that day, the DAP conducted its 16th National Congress and CEC elections. Everything seemed to go smoothly at first. However, almost as soon as the results were tabulated, several DAP members and delegates began to cry foul. They claimed that a conspiracy existed to ensure that the party remained firmly in the clutches of the Lim dynasty.
Their grouses stemmed from alleged irregularities that became the buzz in media for quite a while. The following month, a very strange and enigmatic announcement was made by the party. Its returning officer, Pooi Weng Keong, told the media on the 3rd of January that a technical glitch had occurred in the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet the party had used to tabulate the results.
Strangely enough, the party leadership did not see the need to hold a re-election, despite the results being stained with doubt and suspicion. What’s more, it took an astonishing 19 days for the DAP to come out and admit that such a ‘glitch’ had occurred. Now isn’t that peculiar, particularly since it is coming from a party whose leaders practically ‘pioneered’ – in Malaysia, that is – the use of blogs and social media to launch scathing attacks against Barisan Nasional?
Anyway, Pooi told the media that Vincent Wu Him Ven was mistakenly announced as receiving 1,202 votes when in fact, he had only gotten 669 votes. Imagine, Wu was relegated from position number 6 to 26 almost overnight, while Zairil Khir Johari, the only Malay member of the CEC, made a miraculous jump into the 20th spot after it was announced that he had secured 803 votes and not 305 as it was reported earlier.
The announcement sent DAP members into frenzy. They were struck by shock, as Zairil’s amazing leap came on the heels of complaints that the CEC lacked a representative from the Malay community. Six days later, several disgruntled DAP members called for fresh elections to restore public confidence in the party, which they claimed had been badly tarnished by the screw-up.
However, Guan Eng refused to entertain their requests despite there being allegations that more than a thousand delegates did not receive their meeting notices. Worse, it was alleged that several hundred persons had illegally voted during the CEC election. Furious, the disgruntled faction sought recourse to the Registrar of Societies (RoS) and spilled their grumbles there.
Three months later, on the 18th of April, the RoS issued a statement saying it did not recognise the CEC due to the dispute surrounding the party elections. Note, this is not equivalent to the RoS invalidating the election result as the DAP might have you believe. It simply means the RoS required the dispute to be resolved before it could recognize the CEC – nothing more, nothing less.
The RoS warned that the DAP could face deregistration should it fail to resolve the dispute within a month. However, a defiant and incensed Guan Eng called for a press conference the same day and gave RoS an ultimatum of sorts. Guan Eng told the RoS to revoke its directive, failing which the DAP would use PAS and PKR banners to contest in the general election, then scheduled to be held on the 5th of May 2013.
Now, what Guan Eng did was unprecedented. He had no business issuing an ultimatum of any sort to the RoS, as the department was merely exercising its powers to administer and enforce the Societies Act 1966 and the Societies Regulations 1984. Guan Eng’s presser was nothing but a major publicity stunt to get people to believe that the RoS was politically motivated in its actions.
On the very same day, the Election commission announced that the DAP could still field its candidates during the general election despite the RoS position on the CEC. But Guan eng was not satisfied. The next day, the DAP announced that it would contest in the general election using PAS and PKR tickets.
Can you see how Guan Eng was politicising a non-issue? I say non-issue, because the RoS had made a responsible and legitimate request for the DAP to resolve issues that were staring the party in the face. If Guan Eng was so sure that the CEC election was free of conspiracy, then what was the fuss? Why was he not willing to comply with the RoS request?
He never really did come out to explain that to us.
Instead, he called a press conference similar to the one he recently held, in which he claimed to be the victim of a political conspiracy by the ruling Barisan Nasional to “finish him off.” Back on the 19th of April in 2013, he told the press that the RoS was playing politics to “sabotage” the DAP’s chances at the general election.
“We will not surrender … It is a battle of survival. How do we explain to the voters why we need to contest using another party’s logo?”
That was not the business of the RoS, and Guan Eng knew it. He was telling lies while shedding crocodile tears.
My question is, can Guan Eng come out tomorrow and reiterate that a political conspiracy to sabotage the DAP’s chances at the 2013 poll existed? Can he explain to us what the conspiracy was all about? More importantly, can he prove to us that such a conspiracy existed?
Take my word for it – he can’t. Not only does he not have the balls to do it, he knows as well as I do that a conspiracy never existed. The reason being, not only did the 2013 general election go on smoothly, the DAP campaigned under its own banner without a problem. If indeed the RoS or the Election Commission wanted to play dirty, they could have found ways to prevent DAP candidates from contesting in the election. But they didn’t.
In fact, the late Karpal Singh declared that the party was satisfied with its performance during the general election and had no complaints. Ergo, it was proven that the RoS had not conspired to sabotage the DAP’s chances. But did guan Eng retract his 19th of April statement and issue an apology to the RoS?
No.
Then, on the 12th of September 2013, a booklet titled The Equity Report emerged. The book was authored by a Father Augustus Chen and was published in Malay, English, Tamil and Mandarin. In it, the author detailed the alleged irregularities in the party’s CEC election and gave reasons to the subsequent investigation by the RoS.
The author alleged that both Kit Siang and Guan Eng had manipulated the vote tabulations to position their cronies within the CEC. He accused Tony Pua Kiam Wee, the MP for Petaling Jaya Utara, and Anthony Loke Siew Fook, the MP for Seremban, of being tasked to carry out the dirty job by the two Lims.
Two weeks later, Perak DAP secretary Nga Kor Ming denied claims that the DAP CEC was fraudulent and blamed Barisan Nasional for engaging a ‘smear campaign’. Nga went on to call the author of the book a coward. But did the DAP, Anthony Loke, Tony Pua or even Guan Eng sue Father Augustus?
No.
Instead, the party threatened to sue Utusan Malaysia – and UMNO linked daily – for allegedly spreading “defamatory lies” it attributed to the booklet, which it claimed was written by the “fictitious” Father Augustus. Now isn’t that strange? If indeed Father Augustus was a “fictitious” character, then why did the party not seek clarification from the publisher or distributor of the booklet, or even get its lawyers to sue the publisher and/or distributor for “spreading fictitious lies?”
More importantly, why sue an UMNO linked daily? Was the threat to Utusan Malaysia another publicity stunt to convince Malaysians that UMNO was behind a conspiracy to destroy the DAP? Can Guan Eng come out to explain the logic in all of this?
Moving on – well, actually, back a little – Guan Eng declared on the 31st of July 2013 that the DAP rejected a demand that was made by the RoS for the party to conduct fresh polls. According to him, the RoS did not have the authority to issue such a directive.
“We find this extraordinary that the RoS can just order fresh elections on the mere reason that they are not satisfied, without giving any grounds when we have given all our explanation in full and fully co-operated with the RoS.”
He lied. Let me explain.
The Societies Act 1966 requires every party to make certain provisions in its constitution, including the method of appointment or election of its members. The constitution then needs to be made accessible to all its members and must serve as the principle set of rules that the party must adhere to.
Now, since it is the duty of the RoS to enforce the Societies Act 1966, it is therefore vested with authority to receive complaints by members of a party against its leadership, particularly if those complaints relate to violation of the party’s constitution. In the event such a complaint is lodged, the RoS has the right to demand for an explanation from the party’s leadership.
If an explanation is given but isn’t credible or satisfactory, the RoS has the right to demand a resolution towards a solution from the party’s leadership. The onus would then be for the leadership to prove that the conflict has been resolved or is being resolved.
In simple terms, the RoS can force the party’s leadership to commit to a plan that would help resolve the conflict. If a compromise or a viable solution cannot be reached after all avenues towards a resolution are exhausted, the RoS could opine, based on its findings, that the party hold fresh elections or re-elections to resolve the dispute.
By virtue of this reasoning, it was wrong for Guan Eng to say that the RoS had no power to direct the party to hold fresh elections or re-elections. On the contrary, the RoS had merely presented a solution to resolve a conflict that the DAP did not seem capable of resolving on its own. The only other option would have been for the RoS to deregister the party.
Do you get the clear picture now? Can you see how Guan Eng spins and lies through his teeth?
This story isn’t over yet. Tomorrow, I’ll be back with part two of this very exciting yet enigmatic tale of how and why the DAP is now stuck between a rock and a hard place. We will soon discover why Chow Kon Yew is the rightful Chief Minister of Penang and why Guan Eng should resign as secretary-general of the DAP with immediate effect.
Oh, and one more thing – tomorrow, you will discover another reason why Guan Eng literally begged Nurul Izzah Anwar to support his bid to call for a snap election in Penang.
Stick around guys.
