Teng said “there was no such thing as resigning from all posts”, as purported in the letter.
“No, I did not resign from all party posts. No such letter,” he said when contacted yesterday.
Yesterday, two copies of letters showing Teng’s intention to leave the party and “relinquishing all posts” were snail mailed to FMT.
The first letter was Teng’s resignation as Penang Gerakan leader and another was his resignation as party Central Committee member. Both letters were addressed to party President Mah Siew Keong.
In the letter dated May 10, 2016, Teng said the Penang Gerakan State Liaison Committee had approved Oh Tong Keong, who was appointed “1st Vice Chairman” — to be acting state Gerakan Chairman.
“As you can recall, in our meeting in early March this year, I had expressed my intention to relinquish my position as Penang State Liaison Committee (SLC) chairman and state BN chairman.
“As preparation for a smooth transfer of leadership in the state, I had applied for leave to the SLC which met on May 9.
“My application for leave from May 15 to Nov 15, 2016 had been unanimously approved and accepted by the SLC.
“[…] In due course, I will submit my resignation to the SLC and yourself, and an acting chairman will be appointed in accordance with Article 45.2(b)(ii) of the party constitution.
“I wish to assure you of my continued support and my commitment to assist the party in preparation for the 14th General Election in my ordinary position,” the letter written to Mah read.
In the letter dated March 1, Teng wrote to Mah saying he was resigning from his Central Committee member post.
“I will relinquish my other position in the party in due course to concentrate on my corporate activity,” Teng wrote.
Mah did not reply to FMT’s request for comments at the time of writing.
Penang Gerakan was in the headlines recently after stories of its internal squabbling surfaced.
Seething leaders in the party claim that factions have developed, that is Camp Teng and Camp Baljit Singh. Both have responded by saying all is well within the party and did not want to wash “dirty linen in public”.
Later, news spread that an Umno federal minister was tipped to take over as state BN chairman, following Gerakan’s internal crisis. However, Umno later denied interest in the position.
Teng, who was appointed state BN chairman by the prime minister, had announced that he was going on “long leave” sometime this year. Teng is also state Gerakan chairman.
Sources close to the party had said that Teng was retiring from politics for good and would hand over his state Gerakan chairmanship to his right-hand man, Oh.
Oh was state party secretary and was later appointed vice-chairman 1 earlier this year.
After Teng’s departure, Oh has been widely credited as Penang Gerakan’s acting chairman in media reports.
However, Teng made a surprise announcement that he was coming back to the fold, owing to an announcement by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng that snap polls would be held in July.
This came soon after Lim was charged in court for corruption over the purchase of a bungalow in Penang.
However, the snap polls were called off after a disagreement with Pakatan Harapan component parties, which were not convinced of the reasons for calling early elections.
