Apologise to Indians, Malaysia's DAP secretary-general told

Kuala Lumpur, May 18: A Malaysian-Indian politician of the Democratic Action Party has asked the party's Chinese- origin secretary-general to apologise to nearly 700 Indian members who were stopped from attending a meeting last year.

Former Padang Serai member of parliament N Gobalakrishnan, has asked party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng to apologise, saying he had no right to deny the Indian members their voting rights by not allowing them to attend the central executive committee (CEC) meeting last year.

"He shouldn't treat the Indian members like that as they, too, like him, have voting (rights). It was an important meeting, where Democratic Action Party (DAP) elected their main council members ... how could over 700 Indians not be a part of it?" Gobalakrishnan argued.

Gobalakrishnan also raised the issue of talks that Lim was planning to de-register the party, saying there could be ulterior motives, the New Strait Times reported.

"I want him to explain the rumours of him wanting to de-register DAP. Word is, when he registers DAP as a new party, he will purposely leave out the branches that were headed by Indian DAP leaders," he said.

Last Sunday, former Permatang Pauh PKR committee member N Ponnusamy alleged that there were rumours that someone, allegedly from DAP, had met an official from the Registrar of Societies (RoS) and extended a generous offer to get the party de-registered.

"We are shocked to learn that there are certain quarters in DAP who want the party de-registered, when most of its members are calling for a re-election of the CEC," Ponnusamy said.

Gobalakrishnan said it was sad to see Indians being played out by the party, which claimed to champion the rights of all Malaysians, regardless of race.

He also said DAP chairman Karpal Singh had never spoken out as an Indian and that he did not speak for the Indians in the party.

A total of 2,576 DAP delegates should have been present to elect 20 of the party's CEC members, yet 753 of them, who were Indians, were not present during voting time.

The dissatisfied delegates have since lodged a complaint with RoS for having been denied their rights to attend the congress as delegates.

Ethnic Indians comprise a little over seven percent of Malaysia's total population of nearly 30 million.

In the recently concluded polls in Malaysia, Najib's Barisan Nasional coalition won 133 of the 222 parliamentary seats and came back to power extending its 56-year rule.

Opposition DAP party won 38 parliamentary seats, Anwar's party PKR has 30 seats and PAS party 21 seats.

PTI