Bandar Klang state assembly representative Teng Chang Khim today gave an assurance that he is not ready to throw in the towel just yet, despite his announcement yesterday to quit his committee post in DAP Selangor.

His decision to quit followed a low number of votes at last Sunday's elections, and he will now only hold the position of central committee member at national level.

The Star today reported Teng's decision to vacate his state post, leaving new chairperson Ronnie Liu - who is also DAP national publicity secretary - to run the state leadership without hindrance.

"This is not the last straw. I still harbour hopes for the spirit of reform within the party," Teng told malaysiakini today.

"I will fulfill my role at the national level and still carry out my responsibilities."

Teng admitted that the results of the state leadership election had stung, especially given the "undemocratic" turn of events prior to the election.

This had seen one faction of DAP Selangor rejecting outright the "mature solution" proposed by former chairperson M Manoharan, who had proposed a 'unity list' to reconcile differences between himself and then executive committee member Liu.

'Poor conflict resolution'

"Manoharan had put forward what I thought as a mature way of resolving (the conflict). But Liu chose to reject outright the 'unity list' without any counter-proposal," said Teng.

Under the proposed 'unity list', Manoharan suggested that six seats be allocated to members of his faction while those aligned to Liu would have the majority of eight seats. The remaining seat was to have been allocated to Teng.

Instead, most key posts were won by those closely aligned to Liu. Among those elected were Tee Boon Hock (deputy chairperson), Ong Eng Siong and V Krishnan (vice-chairpersons), Alex Yim (secretary) and Ong Chee Keng (treasurer).

"Democracy is not just about numbers, but how to compromise within the party framework," said Teng referring the near clean sweep by Liu's men.

"But we must now learn new ways on resolving the conflict, as elections are never the way to solve problems."

'Enough is enough'

Teng said his decision to quit had much to do with his unpopularity among some leaders, which resulted in a campaign to "smear" his name even before the conflict between Manoharan and Liu erupted.

"(The election results) hurt me very much, especially since over 40 percent of members did not vote for me. But even before that there were already rumours to smear my name...including that I crossed over to Gerakan," he explained.

"There comes a time where you have to say enough is enough. There were only two options - keep the committee seat or keep my honour."

He described the 86 ballots cast in his favour - placing him 12th out of the 15 names voted into the committee - was a "insult" to his service to the party. For eight out of 12 years, he has also been a state assembly representative.

He had expected to at least rank within the top five elected officials, but instead was relegated to the bottom five, below "much younger and politically-inexperienced" members.

Teng said he may not have made it into the committee except for the fact that the constitution allowed for up to 15 committee members.

Under these circumstances, therefore, he felt he had no choice but to step down.