Karpal hits out at DAP panel which cleared Rama

By Athi Shankar


The party chairman is on a combative mode and says the panel whick cleared Ramasamy could have been tainted with elements of biasness and conflict of interests.

GEORGE TOWN: DAP supremo Karpal Singh has rebuked the three-man panel that heard and declared DAP deputy secretary-general P Ramasamy not guilty on any breach of discipline as “abinitio or null and void.”

Karpal slammed the panelists of having been tainted with elements of biasness and conflict of interests.
The DAP national chairman pointed out that since Ramasamy was a member of the four-man party disciplinary committee, the panel should have been constituted of different party members.

However, the three men who sat for the disciplinary hearing on Ramasamy on Feb 16 were all members of the party disciplinary committee.

They were chairman and Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai, Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran and Penang executive councillor Lim Hock Seng.

Conventionally, said Karpal, the three panelists should have disqualified themselves from the proceedings instead of waiting for others to tell them to do so.

He was particularly shocked to see that Kulasegaran, a lawyer, sidestepped the conventional wisdom not to sit in the panel.

“How could the three men try their own peer (Ramasamy) for misconduct?

“It’s clear conflict of interests and has high likelihood of biasness. Such panel would not stand before the court of justice.

“The disciplinary proceedings were null and void, or abinitio all along,” Karpal told newsmen during his Bukit Gelugor parliamentary constituency working visit today.

Ramasamy, who is Batu Kawan MP and Prai assemblyman, faced charges of gross internal misconduct for allegedly organising a noisy protest against Karpal Singh during the Penang DAP annual convention in Prai on Dec 11 last year.

Some 33 party members lodged complaints and 15 of them testified at the hearing against Ramasamy, the DAP state deputy chairman. They also submitted photographic evidence to substantiate their claims.
But, on March 12, the panel announced that it has found Ramasamy not guilty on any charges.

Following the verdict, assemblymen RSN Rayer (Seri Delima) and A Tanasekharan (Bagan Dalam) have filed an appeal to the party central executive committee (CEC). The next CEC meeting would deliberate and decide on the appeal.

It is expected to be a stormy affair as Karpal and others are expected to sharpen their knives to raise the issue of conflict of interests and biasness which allegedly shrouded the panel’s decision.