THE challenge for Pakatan Harapan now is to gain the trust of Malaysians to fill the leadership void should it come to govern the country, says DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

Lim, who is also Penang chief minister, said Barisan Nasional supporters were willing to “switch their votes” because of the corruption and abuse of power apparent in the ruling coalition today.

“If you thought things were bad then, now it is much worse. BN supporters are willing to switch their votes but the question now is whether Pakatan Harapan can fill the leadership void and be trusted to steer the economy towards a better future for ordinary Malaysians,” Lim said during DAP’s Special Congress at the Ideal Convention Centre (IDCC) in Shah Alam today.

Lim highlighted the financial scandals involving BN, such as the 1Malaysia Development Bhd, Felda and Mara issues, and said these scandals had destroyed the trust of Malaysians in BN, as well as Prime Minister Najib Razak.

“To many loyal BN supporters, the BN now is different from the BN of old. Many loyal BN supporters are shocked not only by the scale of corruption but also massive arbitrary abuse of power,” he said.

He also said Malaysians were being burdened by the goods and services tax (GST), which was unnecessary.

“Malaysia was a rich country that could afford to feed its people, build schools and public infrastructure, even build Putrajaya, without imposing GST.

“There is a hidden crisis but clear and present for all to see except by BN, which refuses to acknowledge this at all,” he said.

A total of 1356 out of 2514 DAP delegates were present today for its central executive committee (CEC) re-election.

Meanwhile, a mini protest was held outside IDCC prior to the event aimed at highlighting alleged abuse of funds by DAP vice-chairperson Teresa Kok.

Tony Tan, who led the protest, said Kok had announced that one of her supporter, Ng Chai Hin, had collected RM300,000 for her election campaign. However, the amount was not reflected when the expenditure account of the election was drawn up.

“The issue of the missing RM300,000 was not even investigated and there was no reply from the Disciplinary Committee on the matter until today.

“That reflects very badly on the integrity, accountability and transparency of the party,” he said.

On July 17, DAP received a letter from the Registrar of Societies telling the party to re-elect its CEC members as RoS did not acknowledge the results of DAP’s polls on December 15, 2012, and subsequent re-election on September 29, 2013.

The party had appointed the United States-based independent audit firm Grant Thornton for the party’s CEC re-election today. – November 12, 2017.