KUALA LUMPUR: DAP will regret crying wolf over the Registrar of Societies’ (RoS) directive to hold a second re-election for its Central Executive Committee (CEC).
Gerakan vice-president Datuk Dr Dominic Lau said the public will not be easily fooled by DAP which portray itself as a victim of political play.
"In a wild, topsy-turvy political year for the Opposition, the siege mentality is an exceedingly familiar piece of the political landscape.
"That this line of defence is so shop-worn, just when DAP think it will sway public opinion, has led to the party being more arrogant and contemptuous of the authority," said Lau in a statement today.
He said party supremo Lim Kit Siang and secretary general Lim Guan Eng had been the prime offenders, with no hesitation about resorting to blame others and wash their hands of the problems faced by DAP.
On Friday, DAP has agreed to hold its CEC re-election but under protest, to show disagreement with the RoS claims of irregularities in the party's 2013 re-election.
Lau said DAP's botched handling of its party election will no longer be perceived as a political persecution in trying circumstances, but an indication of the party's selective democracy.
"DAP had basically put off people with its out-of-touch elitist attitude,"
He said DAP should admit that it mishandled its party election or sue the RoS in court if they are innocent.
"They agreed grudgingly to hold the re-election but at the same time insist that they are doing it under protest.
"If this isn’t crying wolf, what is?," he said.
In 2013, the RoS had ordered a re-election of DAP’s CEC after it found irregularities and manipulation of votes by the party in its initial election in December 2012.
After the re-election, some party members claimed that they were denied the right to attend the party congress as delegates.
In a statement earlier this month, RoS director-general Datuk Mohammad Razin Abdullah had instructed DAP to hold a re-election of the party’s CEC.
Razin said it is necessary as the election of CEC members and key positions via a re-election on Sept 29, 2013 was deemed unlawful.