The power struggle between MCA president Ong Tee Keat and his deputy Chua Soi Lek has taken a turn for the worse in Johor.

Rival delegates for both camps chose to boycott the party's division AGMs held yesterday in Bakri and Segamat respectively.

Before the start of the Bakri AGM, division deputy president, Sia Ka Tuan and his supporters, which is said to be to be aligned to Soi Lek openly boycotted the meeting, to show their discontent with division head, Chua Jui Meng, who recently closed ranks with party chief Ong.

As a result, only 160 out of more than 390 branch delegates attended yesterday's Bakri AGM.

chua jui ming and ong tee keat 060209 Ong (left) and Jui Meng have accused Soi Lek of causing a split in the division and party.

Ong, who is also the Johor MCA Liaison Committee chairperson, in his opening speech at the AGM, admitted that the party faces the danger of being split into two.

He said, there are rumours that there are two MCAs now, one that has a democratically elected president and central committee, and the other, has office bearers appointed by external forces.

However, Ong reiterated that as long as he is the MCA president, he would not allow external forces to bring down the party.

In May, Soi Lek was appointed by PM Najib as the chief BN coordinator in Pakatan states, to streamline their effort in winning back those states.

List reinstated

Last week, he held a BN coordinating meeting in Muar which was seen by his rival as a subtle move to undermine the party leadership by the Johor MCA.

Meanwhile, at Soi Lek's stronghold of Segamat, Ong's faction, in turn, boycotted the AGM in protest against Soi Lek for opening the meeting.

Out of the 198 branch delegates, 90 were absent. The boycott was led by See Cheng Leong, who is said to be Ong's ' man'.

mca 60th anniversary chua soi lek and ong tee keat 030309 07 Some of the absent delegates instead, attended the Sekijang division AGM, which was held simultaneously but opened by the party president.

In the latest tussle, the Soi Lek (right) camp won one round, when it successfully reinstated the original MCA list for local councillors, which is said to favour them.

It was claimed that the list was tampered with by 'higher party authorities', in which Soi Lek's followers were booted out.

Johor MB Abdul Ghani Othman later revoked the "tampered" list.

In Ong's opening speech at the Sekijang division AGM, he said it is time to "settle the score" on the issue.

He said that he has called the discipline committee to look into the issue and take action against those who tarnished the party and made false statements.