DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang's proposal to form a 'secular' opposition front with two former coalition partners did not go through proper party procedures before it was announced.

According to a party leader, while DAP's 27-member central executive committee had discussed the matter, it had yet to officially endorse the proposal.

"There has been no final decision made on the proposal and it is yet to be discussed in-depth by the CEC," party Youth chief Teng Chang Kim told malaysiakini today.

In a speech in London last week, Lim proposed that a new opposition front be formed with ex-partners in the Barisan Alternatif coalition, Keadilan and PRM, but excluding Muslim-based PAS.

Teng's statement today confirmed a Tuesday report by Nanyang Siang Pau which quoted DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock as saying the 'secular front' proposal had not been discussed in detail within the CEC.

However, party publicity chief Ronnie Liu defended Lim for not getting prior approval from the party's leadership before making the proposal public.

According to Liu, the DAP chief was merely expressing his views when he made the proposal and the gist of his suggestion did not deviate from the party platform.

"His idea is in line with the party's principles of maintaining a multi-racial and multi-religious Malaysia," he added.

Nevertheless, he said the CEC will be meeting next month to discuss the matter.

Nothing new

Meanwhile, another CEC member, Teresa Kok, said Lim's proposal was "nothing new". She, however, refused to be drawn into the question of whether the announcement of her party leader was premature.

It is learnt that while the majority of the CEC will fully support the 'secular front' idea, some party members have expressed unease over the timing of the proposal, especially coming so soon after DAP's withdrawal from BA.

In September, DAP opted out of BA when discussions with PAS failed to resolve their differences over the Muslim-based party's Islamic state policy

A high-ranking party source had earlier told malaysiakini that while the idea of a secular front was acceptable within the party, it may not be welcomed by other opposition parties.

"The timing is not right," the source said, adding that the proposal was made without considering the feelings of the BA component parties, and can be seen as an unfriendly move.

Spell disaster

On Wednesday, DAP deputy chief Karpal Singh backed Lim's proposal, and urged Keadilan and PRM to leave BA to join the proposed front.

According to Karpal, an alignment with PAS would only spell disaster.

But this drew a caustic response from PAS president Fadzil Noor today, who accused its former coalition partner of trying to sabotage the existing opposition coalition.

"DAP left the opposition front on its own but now has the cheek to ask for the opposition to disband itself in order to accommodate DAP," Fadzil was quoted as saying by The Star .

Both Kerk and Lim could not be reached for comment.