The DAP central executive committee (CEC) last night sealed a proposal for its Selangor committee to be dissolved following an open spat earlier this month over the sacking of eight office-bearers.

In a press statement, DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock announced an interim line-up of leaders.

High-profile guardians

The interim leadership will be headed by Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun, who will run the Selangor branch until the next state-level election scheduled for Aug 10.

Fong will be supported by five other national leaders including DAP deputy chairperson Karpal Singh ( photo ) as interim deputy Selangor chair and deputy secretary-general M Kula Segaran as o­ne of five vice-presidents.

The move by the party's highest decision-making body came in response to an dispute among the Selangor leaders two weeks ago when erstwhile state chairperson M Manoharan removed eight office-bearers from his committee for allegedly not attending three consecutive meetings.

The eight are secretary Ronnie Liu, organising secretary Jack Wong, deputy chairperson Tee Boon Hock, vice chairperson o­ng Ing Siong, publicity secretary William Thye, treasurer Alex Yim, assistant treasurer Ang Leng Kiat and women affairs secretary Madeline Chang.

The sackings were later reversed by the party's central working committee which, however, recommended the replacement of the top state leaders to curb more bickering.

Party image

According to Kerk, the CEC decided to dissolve the state committee and to establish an interim committee based o­n the recommendation of the CWC to prevent the occurrence of incidents which would further damage the party's image.

"The CWC (which had met o­n May 19) was also concerned about the deep-seated problems in the Selangor committee and the inability of the state leadership to effectively operate and gear up for the coming general election," he said.

The original committee members have been included in the expanded line-up, but have been reshuffled to lower positions.

Under the new line-up, Manoharan and Tee have been reassigned to vice-presidents' posts. while Liu has been moved down a slot to assistant secretary. The other six office-bearers sacked earlier by Manoharan have retained their positions.

The new state committee is expected to hold its first meeting this Friday at the party's national headquarters in Petaling Jaya.