DAP to make final effort to 'press' ROS for explanation

DAP will make one last-ditch effort to meet with Registrar of Societies (ROS) director-general Abdul Rahman Othman to “press him” for the reasons why, and under what law, the Registrar is instructing the party to hold the re-election of its central executive committee (CEC).

Party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng (right) said that during an emergency central working committee meeting (CWC) called last night, the committee agreed that it will hold fresh polls providing the ROS furnishes the two explanations sought.

DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke is tasked with arranging the appointment with the ROS, Lim said in a statement today.

“Directing re-elections solely on the basis that the ROS is dissatisfied, is unlawful because it violates the basic principle of ‘reasonableness in the exercise of powers, natural justice and due legal process’.

“The two explanations of the reasons why and under what powers of the law in the Societies Act (1966) are necessary in the interests of accountability and transparency,” he said.

“Without these two explanations by the ROS, the DAP leadership would be completely helpless in not being able to answer the queries of DAP delegates at a party congress on why the party leadership succumbed and surrendered meekly to such arbitrary and high-handed abuse of power by the ROS in directing re-elections.”

This comes after it was revealed that a letter signed on behalf of ROS by one Dasmond Das Michael Das and issued to Lim on Aug 7 stated that the Societies Act does not stipulate the need for the ROS to provide the two explanations.

DAP further accused the ROS of behaving “unprofessionally, unethically and even unlawfully in making media announcements that had no factual or legal basis”, stating the ROS could sue DAP if it believed it was defamed by the latter.