The powerful Registrar of Societies (ROS) is empowered to decide on the rightful deputy MCA president, insisted Dr Chua Soi Lek today.

According to former deputy party chief Chua, since the MCA constitution was approved by the ROS, it is thus the legitimate body to interpret it.

He was commenting on Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein's statement yesterday that ROS would not meddle in the MCA crisis. However, Chua can make an appeal to the minister.

NONE "I beg to differ with the minister," Chua, told a press conference today, which was ostensibly held to share his views on Budget 2010 as MCA's government policy monitoring bureau chief.

“The constitution for all political parties are approved by the ROS. How can they say they have no power (to intervene)? I hope the ROS will brief the minister on their role,” he added.

To stress his point further, Chua said that should the ROS have no power to intervene, it would then be not necessary for organisations to subject their constitutional amendments to ROS scrutiny.

Chua was reinstated as a party member by the Oct 10 MCA extraordinary general meeting,

Arguing that a two-third majority is required to remove an elected leader, Chua had written to the ROS to get clarification on whether the EGM decision would automatically reinstate him as deputy president.

He denied press reports that he had received a response from ROS.

Chua’s position has been complicated by the appointment of Liow Tiong Lai as deputy chief by the party’s central committee last week.

Should Chua suceed in being reinstated as deputy chief, Liow is likely to be demoted to his previous position as vice-president.

Chua back to business

Today’s press conference marks Chua’s return to his party function since his sacking from the party on Aug 26 until his reinstatement three weeks later

Chua, a former health minister, lauded the 2010 Budget as “generally a good budget” and described it as “painless”.

However, he had urged the government to spell out the details for Goods and Services Tax, increase the number of tax incentives and implementing a minimum wage policy for certain sectors to reduce dependence on foreign workers.

Asked if this was the official party position, Chua replied: “No, I would say that this is an MCA undertaking”.

He denied that he was previously barred from speaking to the press in his capacity as the monitoring bureau chief, but instead kept mum in the past few months.

“This is my seventh press conference. I stopped for a few months, that is all. At the time, there was a lot of sensitivity. Every time I speak, they get very jittery.

“Now, with the peace plan on, people are more comfortable. When I speak, I speak about issues. I’m not targeting anyone,” he said.

Chua was referring to the statement of his former nemesis and MCA president Ong Tee Keat’s ‘ greater unity plan ’, aimed at helping the party close ranks after months of infighting.