VIDEO | 1:34 mins

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar has called DAP’s decision to hold a fresh central executive committee (CEC) election an “admission of guilt”.

“I don’t know why it took so long, finally they admitted they were wrong in this issue, with the decision for re-election. In fact they admitted they are wrong, (it is an) admission of guilt,” Khairy told reporters this morning.

dap national congress 151212 new cec The comments came during a press conference at the opening of the Sunway Public Policy Competition at Sunway University today.

“Why was the issue prolonged? The issue has been politicised, while they know they are wrong.

“In the end, they followed the decision and suggestion by the ROS (Registrar of Societies),” he said.

Khairy added that the time it took for DAP to come to the decision “clearly shows they only know how to politicise the decision made by a government agency”.

Loke: Khairy playing cheap politics

Seremban MP Anthony Loke meanwhile slammed Khairy’s statements as dishonest and mere cheap politics playing to the Umno gallery.

“I am disappointed that such baseless allegations can come from the mouth of a young minister who always paints himself as a new generation leader who is of high calibre and intelligent.

“Just to win the hearts of his Umno NONE members in the run up to the party elections, he is willing to stoop to such low politics,” said Loke ( left ) in a statement today.

He said Khairy’s suggestion that holding the CEC elections again was an admission of guilt was “baseless” as DAP’s hand is being forced by ROS’s actions.

“This is a political trap set up Umno, because their main objective is to destroy and silence DAP from Malaysian’s political arena,” he said, adding that this was the reason why DAP conceded.

He said DAP has not resorted to legal action as they were certain there would be political interference in the judicial process, and having the matter drag on in court would affect the party’s effectiveness in serving the people.

He also pointed out that Khairy’s claim that DAP took considerable time to admit their mistakes was “a lie to deceive the public”.

NONE The Seremban MP pointed out that DAP had made public the error in early January, and the delay was on ROS’ part for taking seven months to investigate the matter.

“It is clear that Khairy is just like the other Umno leaders, who are still playing politics the traditional Umno way, that is true slander, lies, baseless allegations and abuse of power...” he added.

Yesterday, DAP bowed to the ROS demand to hold fresh CEC elections .

However, DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua ( right ) insisted that the decision was arrived at only to avoid de-registration of the party and was not validation of the ROS’ claims of wrongdoing.

'Racial policies led to brain drain'

Meanwhile, during the Public Policy Competition, 300 students were asked to come up with innovative ideas to solve the brain drain of talent leaving Malaysia.

Asked if the brain drain was caused by the government’s racial policies, Khairy acknowledged that it was one of many factors.

“It is a consideration, but I don’t think it’s the one and only factor, plus the racial policy is very limited to certain sectors only,” Khairy said.

He added that other factors such as pay and job opportunities played a role and a holistic approach was needed to find a solution.