Transparency International (TI) Malaysia Chapter deputy president Lee Chong San, who quit his post last week, has retracted his resignation.

"Yes, I retracted my resignation last night," he said when contacted this morning.

He explained that, since his resignation was due to a disagreement with president Param Cumaraswamy ( photo ), he had retracted it following the latter's decision to quit on Monday.

"I resigned because I found Param's management unsatisfactory. Now that he has resigned, I think we need to get the movement going again... I also decided to retract my resignation upon some urging from some executive committee members," he said.

Lee's retraction was preceded by a resolution raised by exco member Anwar Fazal and seconded by another exco member Ronald Quay yesterday. In the resolution sent via e-mail to all exco members, the duo proposed that the exco accepts the resignation of Param but not that of Lee.

It was also proposed that Lee be appointed president of the organisation and that the exco authorises him "to take all the necessary and appropriate actions for the benefit of the society".

Urgent matter

Anwar, when contacted, said the resolution was circulated by e-mail because the matter had to be urgently addressed.

"Both of them had submitted their resignations, so some urgent actions were necessary. We proposed very quickly to deal with the leadership issue," he said.

Asked if his resolution would be seen as favouring Lee, Anwar said Param's resignation "had already decided the outcome".

"He decided to leave the organisation instead of going through the channels and discussions open to him. We have to move on," he said.

"Param could have taken up the matter further with the exco or could have called for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) or to bring it up at our annual general meeting. Unfortunately, he did not use those processes and instead decided to resign."

Anwar said some members had seen as a 'threat' an earlier ultimatum by Param that secretary-general Mehrun Siraj should resign or that he would instead.

"For many people, it looked like a threat and as not respecting the due process of good governance for such organisation," Anwar said.

Choice made

Describing Lee's retraction of his resignation as "good news", Anwar said all related issues could now be discussed at the next exco meeting at the end of this month.

"Any member who has a grievance should not bring it up in the public domain but take it up within the organisation itself. Otherwise, it's not good governance," he said, adding that they could also call for an EGM to be held.

Lee, when asked whether he would support the resolution to appoint him as the next TI president said that he would only return as deputy president.

"According to the constitution, the absence of the president leads to the deputy assuming his functions. So I don't really need to have the resolution appointing me as president," he said.

"Whether the committee wants me to be president is not important at this juncture. The important thing is to bring people together again for our cause."

Asked if the resolution was seen as a sign of support for him, he said Param's decision was his own.

"Nobody asked him to resign. He is the one who did it. He chose to go down that path... the exco did not to ask anyone to resign. So I don't think it's favouring one over the other. He chose the path, so he has to live with that path," he added.

Param, when contacted, said he was unaware of Anwar's resolution and declined to comment on the matter beyond saying that he is only answerable to TI members.

In his strongly-worded resignation letter on Monday, Param pinpointed Mehrun as the main cause of his resignation. She could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts.

It is learnt that Mehrun wrote a scathing and insulting email to Param when he asked about a financial matter involving the organisation. This triggered his resignation.