Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy’s remarks about the DAP not needing ‘godfathers’ appears to have opened a can of worms within the party.

Today, a state DAP leader was upset that he had stumbled upon a press conference in Bagan, which was supposedly held to criticise Ramasamy - the state DAP deputy chief - over his controversial comment in Malaysiakini yesterday.

penang assembly roof collapse 010510 lim hock seng State DAP vice-chief Lim Hock Seng ( left ) said he was not aware that the Bagan division had called for the press conference last night at the service centre of Bagan Dalam assemblyperson A Thanasekharan in Kampung Benggali.

Lim, who is Bagan division head, said he went to the centre at about 8.25pm last night to attend the Bagan parliamentary liaison committee meeting, which had been fixed last week.

“I did not purposely go to attend a press conference held at the centre against Ramasamy’s comment about godfathers. I was not told that there would be such a meeting,” he explained.

Lim said when he arrived at the venue, Thanasekharan and several members were already at a restaurant on the ground floor of the service centre.

He said an online portal reporter then started pressuring him with questions about Ramasamy’s remarks, which had prompted DAP national chief Karpal Singh to respond by saying that “godfathers are necessary”.

Karpal had said the younger generation within the party, like Ramasamy, benefitted from the guidance of the veteran leaders, who had contributed much to the progress of the party.

The tiff between the leaders started when Ramasamy was quoted in the Tamil-language dailies last week as having promised and announced seats for his cronies.

Ramasamy has vehemently denied the reports, insisting that he had merely said that seat allocation was the prerogative of the DAP central executive committee (CEC).

‘Ramasamy’s remarks un-DAP like’

Lim was rather peeved that he was asked to comment on reports quoting Ramasamy, which he had not yet read.

“I told the reporter that I have not read the reports and do not wish to comment. However, he continued to pressure me and I refused to be dragged into the issue,” said Lim, referring to Ramasamy’s remarks in the media.

Lim was responding to an article in Free Malaysia Today which reported today that the Bagan DAP division has launched a broadside against Ramasamy for describing party elders as “godfathers”.

The report said that according to the division, this was a mark of disrespect and called on the academician-turned-politician to clarify who he was referring to.

The report also said the division also urged the leadership to take stern disciplinary action against the “newcomer”.

It quoted Thanasekharan - the Bagan division deputy chief - as saying that “never before has a DAP elected representative criticised party elders as godfathers. Its ‘un-DAP-like’.”

On the issue of seat allocation, Lim said he explained the normal procedures used by the DAP in every general election to identify potential candidates.

“The state  DAP has set up a five-member committee to recommend the names of potential candidates, which will be submitted to the CEC for endorsement. This has always been our policy,” he said.

Lim was also not happy that he had somehow been dragged into a photo session with the other members of the division, to make it appear as if he had endorsed the press conference.

“I was already there with the group. I could not just refuse to sit with them to take the photo. But I want to state firmly that I did not purposely go to the service centre to attend the press conference,” he stressed.

When contacted, Thanasekaran said there was no press conference as such but that he was responding to several questions from the online portal reporter.

He declined to issue further comments on Ramasamy’s or Karpal’s statements, saying “I do not want to prolong this matter any more”.