Kit Siang wants Jannie Lasimbang as CEC member

DAP parliamentary leader says he will make the proposal to co-opt Lasimbang into the party's national leadership once its conflict with the RoS is resolved.

PETALING JAYA: DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang says he will make the proposal to co-opt former Bersih Sabah 2.0 chairperson Jannie Lasimbang into the party’s central executive committee (CEC) once its conflict with the Registrar of Societies (RoS) is resolved.

Speaking in Kota Kinabalu last night, the Gelang Patah MP said he intended to propose Lasimbang’s co-option so that DAP would have a woman leader of global status to ensure justice, democracy, human rights, the rule of law and a sustainable environmental policy in Malaysia.

“However, this cannot be done now as DAP is entangled with problems with the RoS. I will make the proposal to co-opt Lasimbang into the DAP national leadership after DAP’s problems with the RoS have been resolved,” he said.

Lasimbang, a former Suhakam commissioner, joined DAP in January. She was a founding member of Partners of Community Organisations in Sabah (Pacos Trust), an NGO dedicated to fighting for the rights of indigenous people.

She also served as the secretary-general of the Indigenous People’s Alliance in Asia and chairperson of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Communities.

DAP’s tangle with the RoS came in July, when they issued a press statement saying the appointment of CEC members and those who held key positions in DAP through its 2013 re-election was deemed unlawful.

The RoS said the re-election should be based on the list of delegates entitled to attend and vote in the CEC election on Dec 15, 2012 which involved 2,576 delegates from 865 branches.

This was because only valid and recognised CEC members can appoint individuals to the main positions, in accordance with the Societies Act 1966 and DAP’s constitution.

The dispute over DAP’s party elections started more than four years ago, three weeks before the 13th general election (GE13) on May 5, 2013.

On April 17 the same year, the RoS sent a letter to DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng saying it did not recognise DAP’s CEC which had been elected during the 2012 party elections.

Former RoS director-general Abdul Rahman Othman said the non-recognition was due to the alleged dispute surrounding the party polls, and warned that DAP faced the risk of being de-registered.

A re-election of the CEC was eventually carried out by DAP on Sept 29, 2013, but the RoS has still refused to recognise it.

DAP has since agreed to hold fresh party polls, but under protest.

In his speech last night, Lim also slammed claims allegedly circulating in Lahad Datu that DAP was anti-Malay and anti-Islam, and that the Malays and Muslim Bumiputeras would suffer if Umno lost power.

Saying the “Umno lies, fake news and false information” was nothing new, the DAP parliamentary leader added however that this was the first time he had heard them being spread in Sabah.

He said this was a “significant political achievement” for DAP as even in Sabah now, Umno recognised that DAP was gaining the support of the Malays and Muslim Bumiputeras who were taking up leadership positions at various levels of the party in the state.

He also pointed out that more than 350 Muslim Bumiputeras had applied to join DAP in Sandakan over the weekend, and wanted to form four new branches in the area which is the home ground of Sabah Chief Minister and Umno leader Musa Aman. - FMT