Zahid tells DAP to stop speculation over party

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today told DAP leaders to cease speculating that the party may be outlawed by the Registrar of Societies.

He said some of the party leaders assumed that the RoS was working towards banning the party.

RoS had received a letter from DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng asking it to accept as the valid office-bearers, those who were elected at the previous party elections, he said to reporters during a ‘Gawai Dayak’ visit to the residence of Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah Embas at Taman BDC, Stampin in Kuching today.

“This matter was studied in detail by RoS, which has a role in safeguarding the interests of any organisation registered with it.

“I had a discussion with the director-general of RoS and I have yet to obtain an explanation to come to a final decision on the appeal by DAP,” he said.

Asked when a decision would be made, Zahid said he would have a meeting next week with the director-general of RoS.

“I hope he will come up with a written report then,” he said.

Asked on the possibility of DAP being dissolved, Zahid said he was unaware of any attempt to dissolve the party.

“It all depends on the legal aspect and the constitution of the party.

“I believe that when DAP leaders did not adhere to the party constitution which they themselves had drawn up, then RoS can make a professional decision in accordance with what is contained in the party constitution,” he said.

DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang had warned the party that it should be prepared to be banned and having its logo disallowed in the next general election.

On the matter of Sarawak wanting to send a team of lawyers to London to conduct research on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 to retrieve its rights, Zahid said it was the right of the Sarawak and Sabah governments to look at the legal aspects and social understanding in the run-up to the signing of the Malaysia Agreement 1963.

“We in the federal government are open to receiving the feedback that the Sarawak government will gather through its efforts,” he said.

He said there were no issues that could not be resolved and that the federal government was ready to hold talks with the Sarawak government once it had acquired the information from the research.

-- Bernama