The political upheaval in MCA spilled over to the party's Wanita wing when a group of its delegates decided to go against its chief Chew Mei Fun's directive by convening the annual general assembly (AGM) today.

A total of 350 out of 2,037 delegates went ahead with the AGM at Wisma MCA here as they felt it was valid under the party constitution, said Wanita secretary-general Heng Seai Kie.

“Today’s meeting complies with requirements of Article 36 of the party constitution as more than 200 representatives have registered for the meeting.

"Therefore the Wanita MCA AGM should be held accordingly,” she told the delegates after the appointment of Kelana Jaya Wanita chief Ong Chong Swen as the new speaker to convene the meeting.

"Although the MCA's CC (central committee) has decided on fresh polls to resolve the leadership impasse within the party, the party's AGM and party polls are two separate matters," she said.    

mca wanita agm 060310 hall Earlier, speaker Ooi Siew Kim had announced that the AGM was postponed and walked out from Dewan San Choon five minutes after the meeting started at 9.10am, saying that she had received a letter to postpone the AGM from Chew late last night.

However, the announcement was met with boos and objections from the floor as the delegates demanded that the AGM should proceed.

The meeting resumed after 10 minutes and the national organising secretary Tan Cheng Liang later led the delegates to appoint Ong as the speaker.

Although only five debaters took the floor, the debate and speeches revolved around the validity of the AGM which they concluded was legal and adhering to the party constitution.  

Some delegates even questioned Chew's motive to postpone it saying that it had violated the constitution.

Crying session

Yesterday, Chew, after chairing an emergency meeting of the wing, had announced that the AGM would be postponed following the resignation of 21 CC members to pave way for fresh party polls.

The meeting turned emotional at one point when one of its central committee member, Chong Sau Chan from Perak, started crying on the stage, causing all other members to sob.

“I am very sad that such thing has happened to us in MCA. This thing shouldn’t have happened,” Chong said.

The delegates present even claimed that there was an attempt to sabotage the meeting by locking the secretariat room by Chew’s faction aimed at denying them access to the facilities and the secretary-general's reports kept in the room.

The meeting also passed six resolutions which included pledging full support for Prime Minister  Najib Razak's 1Malaysia concept.

The delegates also urged the government to recognise the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) from private Chinese schools and provide assistance for Chinese independent schools besides requesting for the Tekun Nasional fund to be expanded to everyone.

- Bernama

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