An infuriated DAP today suspended seat negotiations with fellow opposition party Keadilan following news reports quoting Keadilan leaders which allegedly put the former in a bad light.

Party secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock said the decision was made since Keadilan leaders had revealed details of the four-month long negotiation to the press in a manner that could tarnish DAP's reputation.

He said the comments directed towards DAP were "unnecessary, unhealthy and unwarranted" and brought to question the sincerity of Keadilan in ensuring the success of the negotiations.

"The party central committee had met on July 28 to express concern about the continued leaking of seat discussions to the press ... we decided to suspend negotiations with Keadilan starting today," he stressed when contacted.

The DAP leader added that Keadilan president Wan Azizah Ismail would be notified about this later today.

"Negotiation processes are never easy - that is why it took us six months to settle (the seat allocations) during the 1999 elections," he said.

Not 'proper'

Kerk said back then, details were never made public although negotiations had reached a deadlock that required higher level committees to be formed to take over initial talks.

He said Keadilan negotiators had agreed to put a gag on details of the latest discussion after the DAP negotiation committee voiced its concern.

"However, while the negotiators stopped talking to the press, other Keadilan leaders did not," he added, referring to a malaysiakini report yesterday that quoted Penang leaders claiming that DAP refused to let go certain seats.

Kerk said the revelation of seat disputes is not going to help Keadilan, DAP, or the opposition as a whole, and is certainly not "proper".

He added that while DAP hoped for a straight fight between opposition parties and Barisan Nasional, the constant running to the press created doubt over Keadilan's sincerity.

"How do you expect us to continue negotiations given such conditions?" he asked.

However, Kerk declined to comment on whether DAP would resuscitate the negotiations should both sides resolve their differences.

He also declined to pinpoint exactly where discussions between the two broke down, as revealing such details to the press would go against the spirit of the seat negotiations.

Problems between Keadilan and DAP started in April following claims by the opposition front Barisan Alternatif that it was popular in traditional DAP states, but DAP refused to budge.

DAP responded that such claims were unnecessary , since negotiations barely reached any common ground on how the seat division should be carried out.

Keadilan disappointed

Meanwhile, Keadilan information chief Khalid Jaafar expressed surprise at DAP's decision, but was disappointed that they were not informed of it first.

"DAP were the ones who initially requested for seat negotiations, but they are now suspending the talks. In fact, after having gone through several rounds of talk, I am surprised at DAP's decision," he said.

"If the media comes and speak to us, obviously we would respond. We would not shut them out," he said in response to the claim that Keadilan was acting in bad faith by talking to the press.

He also claimed that DAP had never requested Keadilan to stop highlighting issues related to the negotiations.

"The request that we stop talking to the media was never raised," he said when contacted.

Nevertheless, Khalid said the media statements by Keadilan leaders were irrelevant to the negotiation process, as what mattered was the decision on the seat allocations, which did not materialise.

"The problem with DAP is that the negotiation committee had to refer everything back to party central.

"Keadilan was different, we were able to make decisions at the table. Clearly our initial proposal for negotiations to first occur at the state level, was correct," he added.

While Keadilan had wanted seat negotiations to first begin at the state level, current negotiations were only being discussed at the national leadership level.