The 15th DAP National Congress was held at Crown Princess Hotel today. The turn out is the greatest ever, with 739 delegates and 300 observers. Representatives from the NGOs, PKR, PAS and dignitaries from foreign embassies were also invited. A surprise was the presence of Lee Chong Wei, the Olympic Singles Badminton silver medalist. He was at our Congress before it commenced. I had the opportunity to shake hand with him, and “smell” and touch the Silver medal which he earned. Yes, it is rather heavy. Most importantly, it is stained with the sweat of Lee Chong Wei. Congratulations to Lee Chong Wei.

DAP National Chairman Karpal Singh delivered a fantastic speech. The policy speech of our Secretary General, Lim Guan Eng, the Chief Minister of Penang, was equally fantastic.

A new leadership will take over in the Central Executive Committee. I am quite confident that they will chart a new course for the DAP in Malaysia, now that we can no longer claim to be a mere opposition party. We have our own Chief Minister in Penang. We are partners in the state Governments in Perak and Selangor.

A lot of interest was on the election. 58 candidates took part in the election to the new committee. I was not elected into the top 20. Actually, I stood at 25, out of 58. That was not surprising since I have not played much role in the national scene. Many of those who do not make the cut are MPs and ADUNs. Not surprising, since there are 101 of us MPs and ADUNs. Technically, now, I am out of the CEC. But that won’t relieve me of my work in the Party.

Kit Siang tops the vote list, followed by Guan Eng. The new leadership maintains most of the old faces. This is vital. We need stability.

The new CEC will be announced tomorrow morning. It will be the full CEC, incorporating the elected and the co-opted. I have told the Secretary General not to co-opt me, not only due to the distance between Sarawak and Kuala Lumpur which proves difficult for me to attend CEC meetings, but also so that younger leaders more capable than me may be given a chance to prove themselves. He has agreed. Until today, Sarawak has 2 CEC leaders, myself and Chong Chieng Jen. Chong, MP for Kuching, is now expected to play a more significant role in the CEC, since he will be the only CEC leader from Sarawak. On the other hand, Hiew King Chieu is the only DAP MP from Sabah. He will be co-opted.

Blog source: Wong Ho Leng blogspot (23 August, 2008)
YB Wong Ho Leng is Sarawak State Legislative Assemblyman for Bukit Assek