By Lim Kit Siang

Registrar of Societies should stop acting on the script of the Umno/BN “DDD” (Demolish/Destroy DAP) campaign but demonstrate that he is independent, impartial and professional including giving reasons why he wants DAP CEC re-elections

Yesterday, the Registrar of Societies (RoS) Director-General Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman asked the DAP to stop its “battle” with the RoS in the media and to comply with procedures.

It is the RoS which is guilty of being part of a “media war” against the DAP in the past eight months, and I would call on Abdul Rahman to stop acting on the script of the Umno/BN “DDD” (Demolish/Destroy DAP) campaign and to demonstrate that he is independent, impartial and professional in carrying out his duties, including giving reasons why he wants DAP Central Executive Committee (CEC) re-elections when the DAP CEC elections last December were proper, valid and conducted fully in accordance with the party Constitution.

In the Umno/BN DDD campaign in the first seven months of the year, three reasons had been floated to question the validity of the DAP CEC re-elections at the DAP Congress in Penang last December:

• Firstly, allegations of electoral fraud and irregularities arising from a computer glitch resulting in an error in the announcement of the CEC results, which had nothing to do with any error in vote counting or tabulation but a mistake in the computer posting of the results for purposes of announcement.

• Secondly, allegation that 753 delegates “mostly Indians” were not notified of the DAP Congress in Penang last December, resulting in their being unable to attend and therefore deprived of the right to vote in the CEC election.

• Thirdly, allegation that 547 “phantom delegates, mostly from Penang” were allowed to vote in the DAP CEC elections in Penang, resulting in fraudulent election results.

All these three reasons have been proven to be baseless. In fact, after the first two months, the first allegation about electoral fraud and irregularities arising from the “computer glitch” was virtually dropped, with the attacks on the DAP elections focussed on the second and third allegations about the “753 delegates” not notified about the Congress and the 547 “phantom delegates”.

In July, a mysterious booklet “The Equity Report (CEC Election Fraud)” in four languages, Bahasa Malaysia, English, Chinese and Tamil, appeared with great fanfare being quoted liberally in the Umno/BN controlled media, as well as distributed nationally throughout the country including Sarawak, although it was written by an entirely fictitious character, a phantom “Father Augustus Chen” and was an illegal publication, as it neither carried the name of the printer or publisher as required by Malaysian law.

I had challenged this “Father Augustus Chen” to surface publicly but of course he did not appear, as he is a pure phantom who had packed some 100 lies and falsehoods against the DAP in its 12-page booklet.

Never before in the nation’s history has a fictitious and unlawful publication been given such “royal treatment”, quoted in the official and Umno/BN media whether print, radio or television as if it is equivalent to official pronoucements emanating from the Prime Minister’s Department or Cabinet sources.

What is noteworthy is that this scurrillous and defamatory booklet by the phantom “Father Augustus Chen” was the final chapter of the Umno/BN “DDD” campaign to justify the UMNO/BN government (as publicly stated by Cabinet Ministers, including the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak) and RoS to demand DAP CEC re-elections, particularly over the baseless allegations about “753 delegates mostly Indians” not being notified of the Party Congress and the “547 phantom delegates, mostly from Penang” participating in the DAP CEC elections.

In the early phase of the UMNO/BN “Demolish/Destroy DAP” campaign, the RoS Director-General was fairly independent, impartial and professional, as evidenced from Abdul Rahman’s statement in January that DAP CEC re-elections “would only occur if there was concrete evidence there were discrepancies in the CEC election process”.

It is obvious that right from the beginning of the DDD campaign, there were intense pressures on the RoS to compromise its independence, impartiality and professionalism and to comply with the script of the DDD campaign to use the DAP CEC elections last December to undermine, destabilise and destroy the DAP as well as Pakatan Rakyat.

This was why the then Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein could announce on February 16, 2013 that an official probe would be launched by the RoS on the CEC elections held in Penang last December as the party had failed to submit its report within the stipulated 60 days, when in fact, DAP submitted its election reports on February 8.

But in the ensuing months, it was clear that the RoS had to act according to the script of the Umno/BN Demolish/Destroy DAP campaign, culminating in the RoS directive on DAP CEC re-elections, although the RoS Director-General was unable to comply with his own standards publicly stated in January that there must be “concrete evidence” about discrepancies in the CEC election process before there could be directive for CEC re-elections.

The Umno/BN Demolish/Destroy DAP campaign has a new agenda after the disastrous BN performance in the 13^th General Elections, which is to eliminate the DAP from the political arena by all means, whether fair or foul, and by extension the Pakatan Rakyat.

Nobody is surprised by this Umno/BN agenda, but the RoS should not get involved in this nefarious Umno/BN agenda but must act as an independent, impartial and professional agency overseeing registered societies and political parties.

It is not too late for the RoS Director-General to discharge his duties lawfully and professionally, and the first step he should do is to give the reasons why he is not satisfied with the DAP CEC elections last December and wants DAP CEC re-elections.

I am also prepared to meet with Datuk Abdul Rahman to substantiate my allegation that the RoS had been acting on the script on the Umno/BN DDD campaign after the initial manifestation of independence, impartiality and professionalism of the RoS in the first weeks of the year.