KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — Gerakan vice president Huan Cheng Guan has been suspended for three years from the party, reigniting speculation that the Penang politician would be heading soon towards a Pakatan Rakyat (PR) party.
The beleaguered Barisan Nasional (BN) party, which has been reduced to a minor party after it lost all its seats in its Penang stronghold in last year’s general elections, decided at its central working committee meeting last night to suspend Huan’s membership.
He has 14 days to appeal against the punishment, which is being meted out because of his recent public outbursts against party colleagues.
Under the party’s constitution, “the suspension shall be reviewed every six (6) months, if not lifted earlier.”
During the period of suspension, “the member concerned shall not take part in any party activity and shall be deemed to be also suspended from any elected or appointed party post.”
“I have served this party so much, you can ask the grassroots. I feel this harsh punishment has a political agenda,” Huan told The Malaysian Insider.
In a statement, party secretary-gene4ral Teng Chang Yeow said Huan’s “excessive negative behavior” was unacceptable.
“It was the view of some leaders that the severe nature of his misbehaviour actually deserved an even more severe punishment.”
Teng added: “Such action was taken because of Huan’s conduct which was prejudicial to the interest of the party by openly attacking the party and the party leadership, declaring his resignation and threatening to bring his supporters out of the party.
“All these open highly detrimental remarks in the media were made just because he and some grassroots leaders and members objected to the appointment of a co-ordinator in one constituency in Penang.”
Huan had recently decided to stick it out in Gerakan despite implying he was planning to leave the BN party.
Last week, the Gerakan man claimed he was still a loyal party man, and that his decision to stay back in the party was prompted by the overwhelming backing he received from the grassroots.
Still, Huan is a relatively unknown politician outside Penang and yesterday’s CWC decision suggests the party leadership was prepared to lose him and his supporters for the sake of party discipline.
His unhappiness with the party leadership appeared to have been also sparked by a relatively minor issue of the appointments of branch coordinators particularly in the Machang Bubok divison in Penang.
Huan’s backers feel that he is highly influential in Penang and would be an asset to Gerakan’s attempt at recapturing the state from the DAP and PR.
But Huan has been at odds with Penang chairman Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan over the appointment of coordinators for parliamentary and state seats traditionally contested by Gerakan which led to Huan being served a show-cause letter.
Last week, the former Batu Kawan MP also apologised for any offence his recent actions had caused to party leaders and said he would accept the decision of the top leadership even if it decided to give him the sack.
Several branch and division leaders have also threatened to leave the party should Huan decide to do so. Branch and division leaders from the mainland of Penang have claimed that 1,000 members would follow Huan.
Huan, who was the only top leader elected in party polls last year not aligned to president Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon, contested the Bukit Tambun state seat in the last general election but lost to a PKR candidate.
PKR is understood to be courting Huan and his supporters.
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