At DAP's Klang parliamentary liaison committee election today, Selangor exco Ronnie Liu’s faction lost badly to an opposing faction alleged to be linked to sacked Klang councillor Tee Boon Hock ( below ).

tee boon hock lodge report against ronnie liu 230910 02 The ‘Tee faction’ that won all 13 posts in the committee - equivalent to  divisions in other parties - includes Klang municipal councillor Ivan Ho, who is now the chairperson.

Today’s meeting chaired by Puchong MP Gobind Singh ended smoothly without any incident such as the fracas at the committee's annual general meeting last month.

The election process was monitored by national deputy publicity secretary Teo Nie Ching and state chief Ean Yong Hian Wah.

According to the committee secretariat, the turnout rate was 75.82 percent, with 138 delegates from 26 branches in Klang attending the meeting.

Ho defeated Shah Alam municipal councilor Ang Neng Kiat - who is said to be supported by Liu - by 47 votes, while his running mate S Selvadurai won uncontested as the deputy chairperson.

 

Ang, who was also vying for the committee's vice-chairperson post, lost to Sow Kim Ling, the former Shah Alam municipal councillor from the ‘Tee faction’ by 24 votes.

'Grassroots support'

The polling centre reverberated with applause every time a candidate from the ‘Tee faction’ won.

 

dap klang parliament agm 231010 03 Met after the AGM, Ang admitted that the results showed it was a vote of protest by the grassroots, who are clearly upset over Tee's dismissal as their councillor. 

 

“This is a fact - every party member knows what happened. I hope the central leadership can respect the veterans' (views),” he said.

 

However, Ang denied that there is serious factionalism within the division, only healthy competition.

Ho added that the results reflect the desires of party members for an internal reshuffle, but did not pinpoint anyone in particular.

“Our party has faced many issues recently (and) the results show what we need (now) is a reshuffle.”

May affect state-level election

 

In the past, two state assemblyperson - Lau Weng San (Kampung Tunku) and Philip Tan (Teluk Datuk), both believed to be from Liu’s team - have also vied for the post of chairperson during their respective committee elections, but lost.

 

NONE Their failure was widely seen as the grassroots’ expression of dissatisfaction with the way the leadership had managed the controversy between Tee and Liu ( right ).

Ties within DAP Klang were strained when Tee - Liu's former aide and a party stalwart in the area - was sacked from the party and as municipal councillor when it was found that he had issued support letters in favour of his son's company.

Tee was also “severely reprimanded” by the party's disciplinary council.

The audit team formed by the Selangor government to probe the matter had found no evidence that Liu's signature was forged in the support letters as previously claimed by him, but no action has been taken against Liu.

Following Liu’s faction’s losses in Klang, observors speculated that dissatisfaction may spread to the state committee elections that are due next month.

 

The Klang election was initially scheduled for Sept 5, but was later postponed to this morning due to problems with the electoral roll.