Political analyst James Wong said this showed “it’s not easy to take any hard decision that could jeopardise his political career” as Liu was known among party circles to be loyal to veteran leader Lim Kit Siang and his son and secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.
“Ronnie Liu has the support of some leaders in the party. Therefore, it will not be easy to take strong action against him,” he said in an interview.
In announcing the decision after last night’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting, party chairman Karpal Singh said the CEC could not consider further action against Liu as he did not file any appeal after he was severely reprimanded by the Disciplinary Committee.
“The CEC does not have power on its own to enhance this sentence and penalty imposed by the disciplinary committee,” he said.
The party has been embroiled in an image-tarnishing controversy since Klang municipal councillor and Liu’s ex-aide Tee Boon Hock was sacked over the misuse of DAP letterheads belonging to the chairman of the local government, research and development committee.
Some party members revealed that Liu’s issue was not brought up for discussion after the CEC members were told that under the party constitution, unless the person appealed, the CEC had no power to consider the matter.
“The moment we were told about this, we knew the subject was off the table and that was the end of it. We can’t discuss it anymore. That is why, nobody said anything about it during the meeting,” a party member told Bernama.
However, party sources said some CEC members were still not happy with the decision as the party would still face the question of whether they “walk the talk” as the issue had badly tarnished its image.
Tee, when contacted, said the CEC decision to uphold his sacking by the Disciplinary Committee showed that he was being made a “scapegoat”.
“They used me as their political scapegoat to help certain leaders. This is very unfair to me. I was punished, but others were not,” he said. — Bernama
