KUALA LUMPUR, 3 Sept 2009: MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat said today his decision to call for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) was to prevent a split in the party.
Delegates at the EGM can decide whether to support or reject the resolutions for the party at the ballot box, he said in his blog.
“After the last ballot is counted and a verdict reached, the party can return to its rejuvenation and renewal process, with little impact to the MCA,” he said.
Ong, who is facing the prospect of a rival EGM being called by sacked deputy president Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek, hit out at the campaign to collect signatures from delegates for the rival EGM.
“Going round the country collecting signatures from delegates to call for an EGM means forcing them to make a stance. If they sign, that means they are in support of a particular leader and if they don’t, that means they are backing another one.
“This is unhealthy at a time when MCA is undergoing a healing process after last year’s general election. I also hear of cases where delegates were coerced or forced to sign,” Ong added.
He said “certain quarters” were trying to confuse members and the public over the EGM and “perpetrating a rift in the MCA to achieve their selfish agendas.”
Party secretary Datuk Wong Foon Meng had asked delegates to propose agendas by tomorrow to prepare for the EGM to be held by 30 Sept.
Dr Chua said yesterday that he had amassed more than the required 800 signatures to move for a rival EGM.
His supporters had said that the EGM would seek to reverse his sacking and to reinstate him to his former position.
Dr Chua was expelled from the party last week upon recommendation by the disciplinary board for tarnishing the party’s image following a video that was secretly made, and then distributed, of him having sex with a woman who was not his wife.
In Johor Baru, MCA Youth chief Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said today he would not force members of the movement to make a stand in support of any individual in the wake of the crisis brewing in the party.
Stressing that the party was more important than individuals, Dr Wee said members of the movement had the wisdom to make their own choice.
“At the end of the day, the MCA must remain strong. That’s what I believe in,” said Dr Wee who is also the deputy education minister.
Ting disagrees EGM will cause split
Former MCA secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Ting Chew Peh said the EGM would not split the second biggest Barisan Nasional component party.
He said that the EGM was one of the democratic channels in the party where issues could be thrashed out, and that he was confident that party members would accept decisions made at the meeting.
“I think the issue of splitting the party does not arise. What is important is to solve the problem… the leadership problem in the party,” he told reporters after attending the Public Accounts Committee’s investigation into the Port Klang Free Zone issue at parliament house in Kuala Lumpur.
Ting was a former Port Klang Authority chairperson.
He also said that the party constitution allowed more than one EGM to be held so long as the related regulations were adhered to.
“But I think one EGM is enough to resolve the problem related to (Dr Chua’s) sacking,” he said. — Bernama
