Teng: Eleventh hour invite to S'gor DAP annual meet

Selangor DAP vice-chairperson Teng Chang Khim has claimed that he was only informed at the last minute about the party’s state annual convention, which was held yesterday.

“I only received a SMS (notification) a day before. I don’t know what the organising secretary (Lau Weng San) was doing by not informing (me earlier),” he said when contacted after the event.

By then, he said, it was too late to cancel his attendance at two events in his constituency, including one in a Malay-majority area where PAS had also sent its representatives.

“I had promised to attend and could not break my word,” he said.

Teng (left) also claimed that assistant secretary Ng Suee Lim had similarly been left out of the loop and therefore arrived late for the convention.

A total of 311 - or 26.97 percent - of the 1,153 delegates were at the event. This barely met the quorum of 25 percent.

At a press conference afterwards, Selangor DAP chairperson Teresa Kok(right) was asked to comment on the low turnout.

“Low turnout? This is not considered low. How can it be low?” she said.

She explained that the turnout at the annual convention of any party is usually lower if party elections are not imminent.

Citing an example, she said the situation was similar at Selangor MCA’s last annual general meeting.

Asked why the majority of delegates were absent, she said: “Lazy loh ... and it rained, and ... how to put this ...  they already have many activities in their constituencies.

“Plus, yesterday (Saturday) was the DAP Socialist Youth’s election day. There were many reasons not to come.”

Delegates from places such as Sabak Bernam and Sungai Pelek, she said, would have had a two-hour drive and without any transport allowance to reach the venue in Petaling Jaya.

Asked why Teng was absent, she said: “Go ask him, maybe he is busy. How can I guess (his reason)?”

She said the state party has been reorganised to enable cooperation among rival factions.

‘Administration in a mess’

At the 2010 state party elections, Kok and her ‘Unity Team’ hadwon by a slim eight-to-seven majority, beating Teng and his ‘Rainbow Team’. The duo had then pledged to work together.

However, Teng said, although he is the vice-chairperson, he is not part of the core leadership and does not know whether preparations for the general election have been discussed.

During the state leadership committee meetings that he has attended, he said, the issue of election preparations and candidates had not been raised.

“Now should be the time to identify the candidates, come up with a plan, strategy, et cetera...,” he said, but the committee has dwelled on “trivial issues” instead.

Teng said this was why he did not attend the committee meetings twice in a row in September and October.

“The administration is a mess ... what are they doing?” he asked.

He dismissed the notion that his remarks would damage party morale, and claimed that he is ready for the general election.

Asked if he could cooperate with Kok, he curtly said that he could “on public affairs”.