MCA president Chua Soi Lek has escaped disciplinary action for allegedly defying a party decision to shun government posts, as the party disciplinary committee has no power to act on the president.

NONE MCA deputy president Liow Tiong Lai ( left ) said the party received a complaint from its Wangsa Maju division concerning the matter, but the request has been rejected during the presidential council meeting today as it wasn't the right channel and not in accordance with proper procedures.

The division has lodged a complaint regarding Chua's position as Penang Port Commission chairperson and wanted action to be taken against the MCA president.

Liow, however, explained that while the party’s constitution stipulated that any party member can be referred to the disciplinary board, there was no mention of the party president.

"As for the president, we do not have the provision (to take action), this is not within the power of the disciplinary board," he said after chairing the presidential meeting which had discussed the issue.

"Any dissatisfaction towards the president must be brought to the central annual general meeting," he said.

Meanwhile, Chua, who was also present at the press conference, said he viewed the issue as a pre-party polls movement.

NONE Earlier this month, eight division leaders and the Save Party Committee 3.0 ( right ) revealed their plan to topple Chua , beginning by urging disciplinary action against the latter over his Penang Port Commission post, to be followed by impeachment.

When asked if Chua was worried about the possibility of an impeachment, Chua replied in the negative, stating that he had been sacked before.

After MCA’S dismal performance in the last general election, Chua had announced that he would not seek re-election in the December party election.

However, he later seemed to have a change of heart, reportedly saying that he had never announced whether he would or would not defend his president’s post, causing Liow to remind the president to keep his promise .

Chua had implied that his word’s were not correctly reported, stating it was Malaysiakini and or The Malaysian Insider that had misquoted him.

"Only Malaysiakini or Malaysian Insider make such report. I was telling (the reporter) not to talk about party elections as if I will defend my post during the Hari Raya," he was reported saying by several Chinese dailies on Saturday.

"I have told about my position, I don't need to repeat (myself).”

No intention to sell The Star shares

Also during today’s press conference, Chua strongly denied the party planned to sell its shares in English daily The Star secretly.

"We strongly denied that MCA is secretly selling the Star share , this is not true. In fact, we are accumulating The Star's share, we have been able to increase the stake from 41  to 41.42 percent in three years.

NONE "We have transferred The Star's share to MCA's name, which made it very hard to sell the shares, we (would) need two-third of the central committee to endorse," he said.

When asked the repeated talks on a Star management buyout from MCA, Chua said he had no knowledge of the matter.

To the question why then do such rumours keep circulating, Chua blamed internal party conflict, upcoming party polls and the opposition.

"Whoever keeps on spinning the issue, we are prepared to sue them," he warned.