DAP delegates debate behind closed doors
DAP has moved to hold the debate session of its National Conference behind closed doors, a departure from its decade-long practice of opening up all of its sessions to the media.
Its secretary-general Lim Guan Eng later told reporters that the closed-door session with 969 delegates, which is being held at the Ideal Convention Centre in Shah Alam, is to allow for discussions on policies...
DAP has moved to hold the debate session of its National Conference behind closed doors, a departure from its decade-long practice of opening up all of its sessions to the media.
Its secretary-general Lim Guan Eng later told reporters that the closed-door session with 969 delegates, which is being held at the Ideal Convention Centre in Shah Alam, is to allow for discussions on policies.
"Now that we are in government, we want to discuss issues which are important for policies, which need to be confidential," said Guan Eng, who is also the finance minister.
The media was earlier allowed to cover the opening session, involving a speech from DAP chairperson Tan Kok Wai, Guan Eng's policy address, and a brief remark by PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.
The opening session ended at about 11.30am, before proceeding behind closed doors from 1pm until the end of the day's agenda at 5.30pm.
'Internal governance affairs'
According to the official programme, the matters scheduled to be discussed include amendments to the party's constitution.
A summary distributed to the media states that one of these amendments pertain to the establishment of a "disciplinary committee to deal with disciplinary matters in the party."
The committee will comprise a chairperson and between 10 to 20 members to be appointed by the DAP central executive committee.
Quizzed on whether concerns about any sensitive issues prompted the close-door measure, Guan Eng said some "internal governance affairs" will be discussed.
"We want to have a frank discussion," he added.
Separately, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said the closed-door session would encourage party delegates to give their views.
"We want all to give their views," he said. "We don’t want selective reports; we want to avoid that."
Last December, Kit Siang mocked MCA president Wee Ka Siong for holding its AGM behind closed doors.
At the time, he accused Wee of being afraid of the media picking up on purported grassroots anger at MCA's role in defending former premier Najib Abdul Razak over the 1MDB scandal.
'Free environment'
DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke, meanwhile, said that with reporters being present, delegates tend not to voice their thoughts freely.
"We want to give them a free environment to voice their opinion.
"Usually when there is the presence of media, they tend to reserve their comments.
"It’s not that we control them," he said, adding that the problem was observed after opening the annual congress to the media for a decade," he said.
"We understand the psyche of our members. They are worried they might hurt the party if they voice out something in the presence of the media.
"We are in government now and that’s why we want to give them a free environment to say it out loud."
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