Tunku Aziz: DAP mocking Rukunegara

'Lawmakers have turned into law breakers,' quips the former party leader.

GEORGE TOWN: A frequent critic of DAP today accused it of defying the Rukunegara in its refusal to obey a Registrar of Societies (ROS) order to hold fresh party polls.

“The DAP leaders think they are above all laws. For them, the principles of Rukunegara are secondary to their own selfish political interests,” said Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim, a former vice president of the party and now one of its chief detractors.

“Their open defiance against a lawful directive has ridiculed the principles of Rukunegara.”

In an interview with FMT, Tunku Aziz said DAP leaders, especially senior parliamentarian Lim Kit Siang, should execute their duties as elected lawmakers by strictly upholding the sovereignty of the country’s laws, as upheld in the Rukunegara.

“Instead, the DAP lawmakers have turned into law breakers,” he added.

On Wednesday, ROS issued an official directive to the DAP to hold fresh polls for positions in the party’s highest decision-making body, the central executive committee (CEC).

However, at a meeting on Wednesday night, the CEC resolved to defy the order, claiming ROS had no power to give such a directive.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, the party’s secretary-general, told reporters DAP would be subjected permanently to ROS’s arbitrary dictates if it obeyed the directive, which did not explain why it should hold a new CEC election.

The party today sent a letter to the ROS to explain its stand on the matter.

Tunku Aziz meanwhile described the ROS order as a “legally binding directive from a lawful authority”.

ROS issued its directive following an investigation into complaints by DAP members that the CEC election held last December was marred by irregularities.

A month after the polls, DAP announced it had discovered an error in vote tabulation that was caused by a technical glitch.

DAP members have also complained to ROS that 1,300 eligible delegates were not issued notices to attend the December congress during which the CEC polls were held and that 547 of those who attended and voted were there illegally.

Tunku Aziz noted that DAP had not directly addressed these allegations but had instead been accusing Umno and Barisan Nasional of plotting its downfall.

“The DAP should blame itself, not others, for causing the election fiasco,” he said.