KOTA KINABALU: Embattled Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) president Datuk V.K. Liew has suspended or sacked 23 of its 35 supreme council members, including influential deputy president Senator Datuk Chin Su Phin.
In a dramatic twist to the on-going power struggle for the leadership of Sabah’s oldest Barisan Nasional component party, Liew used the party’s presidential council powers to suspend and sack “mutineers” in a bid reform the current supreme council.
The move, which is likely to see a protracted legal battle barring any peace deals, came after eight of 16 members in its newly-constituted presidential council met in Sandakan.
In suspending Chin and 14 other supreme council members, Liew said that the presidential council endorsed the suspension for recent “conducts and misbehaviours” and they would have to face the disciplinary committee.
He also sacked five appointed supreme council members – deputy secretary general Ho Jia Lit, treasurer general Fong Keng Sin, deputy treasurer general Albert Ngan Yun Kiang, chief publicity officer Albert Kok Yuk Ken and organising secretary Yong Wui Chung.
Four other division leaders, who allegedly failed to attend the last three supreme council meetings, were also removed.
Liew contended that the presidential council gave him the power to fill the vacancies of the supreme council members who had been removed or suspended within the shortest possible time.
Liew had earlier this week sacked secretary-general Datuk Teo Chee Kang when he announced plans to take on the presidency, but the move sparked a mutiny with 27 of the 35 supreme council members demanding a meeting of the supreme council.
However, Liew’s newly-appointed secretary-general Lorretto S Padua said that they rejected the call for the meeting on Sept 6.
Liew maintained that the presidential council on Friday would adhere to the June supreme council decision for the top two positions of the party not to be contested during the coming party elections.
He said a departure from the no-contest resolution decision would set a bad precedent for the future, and any member that wilfully disobeyed the resolution would be liable to be suspended.
Meanwhile, a number of LDP members have voiced supoort for the president’s action.
“A move in the right direction,” commented Vincent Wong who has been a LDP member since its inception.
“I believe we now see a new VK Liew, more determined and with more character. I think he has learnt his lesson well by trusting too much of his closest comrades who tried to backstab him,” he asserted.
Another member, Liau Ket Sing, said the deputy president should lead by example and not doing and saying things behind the members’ back to hurt the party’s unity.
“It is common knowledge in Sandakan that Datuk Chin Su Phin had been calling a restaurant manager to disrupt the dialogue where our president attended last Sunday and we the Sandakan LDP members are very unhappy with this kind of leader,” Liau claimed.
Christoper Lee said Liew had come to Sandakan three times since last week and he had had never spoken ill or anything bad about Chin or Teo.
“He was only explaining to us the situation and he even said he is willing to go if he has done anything wrong against the interests of the party. We, in Sandakan, do not see what Datuk Liew has done wrong. We want him to continue. At least he is a man of principle and a man of honor!” Lee said.