KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 — The DAP’s Lim Kit Siang today pressed the Registrar of Societies (RoS) to say why it wants the party to hold fresh polls, now that accuser “Father Augustus Chen” has failed to appear.
“The seven days given to ‘Father Augustus Chen’ to surface to prove that he is not a phantom are past, and there is no ghost of a sign that there is such a person in Malaysia or on this earth,” the DAP parliamentary leader said in a statement, having issued the deadline on August 5.
Lim said political rival Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) propagandists, whom he had accused of creating Chen, were now saying that the writer’s actual existence was not important in an attempt to shift focus on whether the allegations in the booklet were true.
“This is a pathetic change of tune as it is clear that when an author is the result of a lie, his allegations are not worth attention as they are equally tainted by lies and falsehoods.”
In the same statement, Lim repeated the DAP’s readiness to hold a public inquiry over the party’s central executive committee (CEC) elections last year.
“Nonetheless, DAP is prepared to respond to every lie and falsehood by the phantom ‘Father Augustus Chen’ in a public inquiry if the RoS director-general agrees to a public inquiry to prove that he has acceptable and reasonable grounds to act against the DAP,” he said.
In a separate statement, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said the party had resolved last night to seek out RoS director-general Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman, again expressing willingness to comply with the directive for fresh polls if the latter provided reasonable explanations on two points — the reason and powers under which the order was given.
“The emergency central working committee (CWC) last night unanimously agreed to make a final effort to see the Registrar of Societies Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman to press him for only two explanations of the reasons why and under what powers of the Societies Act is he directing the DAP to hold re-elections for its central executive committee.
“The DAP is willing to hold party re-elections provided these two explanations are given in a manner that is reasonable, lawful and with factual basis,” the Bagan MP said today.
Guan Eng said the party leadership would otherwise be at a loss when answering party delegates on the issue.
“Without these two explanations by the RoS, the DAP leadership would be completely helpless in not being able to answer the queries of DAP delegates at a party congress on why the party leadership succumbed and surrendered meekly to such arbitrary and high-handed abuse of power by the RoS in directing re-elections,” he said.
Guan Eng said the act of ordering fresh leadership elections solely because the RoS was unsatisfied would be “unlawful”, saying it would be breaching the principle of “reasonableness in the exercise of powers, natural justice and due legal process”.
“If DAP accepts the RoS rationale that no explanation needed to be given, then what is there to stop the RoS from directing that fresh elections be called again and again merely because the RoS is not satisfied. Contrast the quick action taken against the DAP on complaints filed this year with the non-action by RoS on complaints filed on the SUPP party elections two years ago,” he added.
He also said the RoS has yet to respond to the request for the two explanations and to meet.
Last week, he had challenged Abdul Rahman to meet him face-to-face and explain the authority’s insistence that the DAP hold fresh elections.
On July 30, the RoS issued the DAP a letter ordering it to hold new elections, citing the reason that it was not satisfied with the party’s explanation of its elections on December 15 last year.
The DAP responded with a written reply demanding for explanations while refusing to hold the re-elections until it was given a valid reason.
But Abdul Rahman reportedly said last week that the RoS had based its decision on statements given by the party’s stakeholders when it ordered the party to hold re-elections of the CEC.
He had said the Societies Act 1966 did not provide a need for RoS to explain its reasons for the decision.
The party had admitted its mistake that a computer glitch at the party congress and CEC elections last year had caused the wrong announcement of the successful candidate.
Guan Eng had then said there was no mistake in vote counting or tabulation as the mistake was only in the posting of the results that led to one candidate, Vincent Wu, being wrongly announced as the successful candidate when it should have been Zairil Khir Johari.
He said the mistake had been rectified and the party had also explained the honest mistake to the RoS officals, while also providing full co-operation and all relevant materials.
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