Tan Tee Beng, who has been sacked as Penang Parti Kita head, has accused the party of not following procedures in his case, and of carrying out a purge of dissenting members in general.

Tan Tee Beng, He claimed that he had not been officially informed about the sacking, whether by text-message, email or a phone call.

Tan denied ever receiving the letter that the party's secretary-general had claimed to have sent last Friday, directing him to attend a disciplinary proceeding on Monday.

"It is also very silly because everyone knows that it was a long holiday from Friday to Monday. Until now, I have yet to receive the letter," he told reporters in Penang today.

Tan, the Nibong Tebal MP, said he would not appeal his dismissal although he has 14 days to do so. Instead, he will lodge a complaint with the Registrar of Societies once he receives the letter.

He insisted that party head Zaid Ibrahim was wrong to propose the dissolution of the party.

Tan also said the party had sent invitation letters to all branches to attend the annual delegates meeting on Feb 25 in Kelantan, but dissolution of the party was not on the agenda.

"The letter was only sent on Jan 10, less than 60 days as required by the constitution," he said.

'We will kick Zaid out'

Tan also claimed that Zaid would not be able to get enough votes to push through the proposed dissolution, as he had only obtained 48 votes (from the central committee and Kelantan branch) compared to 104 votes (from eight branches).

NONE "We need at least 75 percent of the votes to dissolve Kita. We will be able to out-vote him and kick him out of the party. This is why Zaid (is trying to) sack those who oppose him before the meeting.”

He also expressed the fear that the entire Penang branch will be dissolved now that he has been sacked.

Tan said speculation is rife that PAS deputy chief Mohammed Sabu had offered Zaid the Kota Bahru seat to contest in the general election.

But since Zaid may not want to hop to PAS, he has chosen to dissolve Kita and then contest on a PAS ticket, like Pasir Mas MP Ibrahim Ali, Tan added.

Zamil's reaction

In a related development, according to Bernama , Kedah Kita state chairman Zamil Ibrahim, who was also sacked by the party, questioned the move which he claimed was invalid.

zamil ibrahim "I do not recognise the sacking because I want to know who are the members of the disciplinary committee, where was the meeting held, when was I asked to face the disciplinary committee and on what grounds was I sacked," he was quoted as saying at the state party office in Sungai Petani today.

He was commenting on media reports that he and Tan were sacked with immediate effect recently for making statements which adversely affected the party.

The news agency reported that Zamil said he did not receive any letter in black-and-white stating that he was sacked from Kita.

He said, both he and the Kedah Kita committee vehemently rejected the sacking because since Feb 3 they had no longer recognised Zaid as party president.

He said five state chairmen and himself had held a meeting in Putrajaya on Feb 3 to reject Zaid's leadership after the latter's statement to dissolve the party came out in the party blog on Feb 2.