by Nelson Benjamin and Razak Ahmad
sourced from STAR online
JOHOR BARU: Former Johor DAP deputy chairman Norman Fernandez has resigned, two days after it was decided that he should be referred to the party’s disciplinary committee over a Facebook post.
Fernandez said in a brief letter to party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng that he no longer shared the party’s ideals and the path taken by its leaders.
“To continue my membership would only constrain and inhibit my freedom to express my views (in a) forthright (manner) and be critical of the party, particularly its continued alliance with PAS,” he wrote in the letter, which was made available to the media.
Earlier, state DAP secretary Gan Peck Cheng said 18 out of 20 state committee members had voted at a meeting on Saturday for the motion to refer Fernandez to the disciplinary panel while two others abstained. Also present at the meeting was DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang.
The motion, said Gan in a statement, was over three Facebook posts by Fernandez, which had compromised the party’s image in the eyes of the public.
The decision, she stressed, was not discussed at the Johor Pakatan Rakyat meeting and was strictly a DAP internal matter.
It is learnt that in a private Facebook post, Fernandez had criticised several DAP leaders as hypocrites for attacking the Prime Minister over his speech on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) but remaining quiet when the PAS president’s son-in-law voiced support for the militant group.
Fernandez also allegedly insulted two DAP leaders.
It is learnt that the post was removed before the resolution – which Fernandez had described as making a “mountain out of a mole hill” – was passed on Saturday.
“Whatever I write in my blog or Facebook is my own thoughts and feelings,” he said.
PETALING JAYA: There is a fallout in DAP over its collaboration with PAS, which has led to disciplinary action against former Johor DAP deputy chairman and his subsequent resignation.
Norman Fernandez is no stranger to controversy for attacking his party’s ties with PAS due to the Islamist party’s insistence on hudud.
A vocal critic of PAS’ hudud plan, Fernandez called on voters last year to reject the Islamist party just days before the general election, saying that the country could not gamble its future with PAS.
In a reaction to the latest development, MCA publicity bureau chief Datuk Chai Kim Sen said DAP’s action against Fernandez showed that the Opposition party was trying to “curry favour” with its partner PAS.
DAP, said Chai, had been telling non-Muslims that it was against hudud but never took concrete steps to lodge an official protest with PAS or stated its opposition at Pakatan Rakyat supreme council meetings.
“DAP has instead made Fernandez its ‘sacrificial lamb’ for speaking up against PAS.
“The disciplinary action against Fernandez shows that DAP will not offend PAS for political interest and that it is also unable to tell right from wrong,” said Chai in a statement here yesterday.
Chai said that according to news reports, Fernandez had condemned DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and PAS for betraying Pakatan by allowing PAS to go ahead with its hudud plan in April despite the lack of an agreement on the issue in its common policy framework.
He described Fernandez as “politically courageous” for daring to speak up against hudud despite the party’s fear of objecting to PAS.
“Obviously, DAP is no longer able to tolerate different voices and it oppresses those who do not share the same view,” said Chai, who is also MCA deputy national organising secretary.
