KUALA LUMPUR – The deepening cracks within Johor DAP are showing no signs of mending as allegations and a war of words between the party's top state leadership continue to drag the political outfit into a deeper quagmire.
In his latest statement, former state party chairman Dr Boo Cheng Hau questioned how Johor DAP chief Liew Chin Tong’s senatorship bid was allowed to bypass the party’s state committee, as it should have been done by convention.
This is in response to Johor DAP deputy chief Teo Nie Ching’s revelation last night that Liew’s nomination for the senator’s post in Dewan Negara was approved by DAP’s national candidature committee.
“I would like to advise Liew, as a respectable leader, to be accountable for what he did and to explain personally to Johor’s people and the DAP grassroots why he bypassed the Johor DAP committee in nominating him as Senator.
“He must also personally clarify that he has no hidden agenda for doing so and no personal deals with the Barisan Nasional (BN)-Perikatan National (PN) state government,” he said today.
Dr Boo is a Johor DAP committee member and a long-time rival to Liew, having challenged and lost twice to the latter for the state’s top party post, including in the latest election in May.
When contacted, Liew declined to comment on the allegations made against him, merely saying “no response”.
Dr Boo said that while DAP’s party constitution states that the appointments of election candidates and government posts are the ultimate prerogative of the central executive committee, the leadership conventionally seeks feedback from the states and branches.
“If Liew and Teo’s claim that the former’s proposal to be nominated as senator in a BN-PN run state is true, perhaps they could help explain the true reasons why the central candidature committee would breach such a long-standing convention.”
Dr Boo also told Teo not to be an “all-yes-lady” for Liew, when she should have instead advised the state chairman to not breach the party’s long-standing practice of deliberating matters on appointments and nominations with the state committee.
He added that he will reveal other details concerning the issue if the Pakatan Harapan (PH) presidential council decides to probe the matter.
In a separate statement yesterday, Dr Boo had called on the council to investigate alleged abuse of power by Liew, whom he said had misused the memorandum of understanding between the state government and opposition by purportedly seeking to be appointed a senator for Johor.
He had alleged that Liew had in August also misled the Johor PH council into believing he had garnered support from BN and PN assemblymen to appoint him, and that a resolution would be proposed in a state assembly sitting.
“The proposed resolution was also never made known or approved by the Johor DAP committee. I raised the issue and questioned Liew in the Johor DAP committee WhatsApp chat group, and he never denied the incident.”
However, Dr Boo said, the resolution for his senatorship was withdrawn after Liew failed to prove that he could garner enough support to ensure its passage by the Johor assembly.
In an immediate response, Teo had said that Liew’s nomination for the senator’s post was decided by DAP’s national candidature committee, as per the party’s constitution, while noting that one of the two senatorships elected by the Johor assembly had been vacant since last year.
“In the process of exploration, DAP’s national candidature committee agreed that in the event of the vacancy being opened for nomination, the party would nominate Liew to the position, subject to the consent of our PH allies.
“Johor PH is of the view that one of the two senators should be from the coalition...Johor PH nominated a candidate in November last year and decided to explore again in August this year.
“On both occasions, the state government did not agree to open the post for nomination, hence the position remains vacant to this day,” she explained. – The Vibes, December 31, 2021
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