Cornered by rival Team A to show proof that phantom members exist in MCA, deputy president and Team B leader Lim Ah Lek today warned that their "patience is not without limit" and that they would not hesitate to spill the beans if forced to.

"If [party president Dr] Ling Liong Sik and his supporters continue to dare us, we will have to reveal the cases that we detected, of which we are confident will ruin his credibility and the party's image.

"We love our party, but we cherish the truth more," said Lim at a press conference held in Kuala Lumpur where all Team B leaders were present this afternoon.

Vice-presidents Chua Jui Meng and Chan Kong Choy; Youth chief Ong Tee Keat; Wanita deputy chief Dr Tan Yee Kew; central committee members Wong Mook Leong, Tang See Hang and Fu Ah Kiow; and former Youth chief Yap Pian Ho were among those present.

Conspicuous in the line-up was MCA Negeri Sembilan state deputy chief Dr Yeow Chai Thiam who had remained tight-lipped on the faction he was aligned to in recent weeks.

Reporters were shown 13 thick ringed files which were said to contain information of phantom members detected thus far by Team B.

Lim alleged that the phantom members phenomenon involved several serious crimes that include misusing copies of identification cards to sign up the owners without their knowledge.

He said they also found names of non-Chinese and underaged youngsters, some of whom are still studying, on the membership list.

Fake IC numbers

Non-existent identification card numbers were also found when the list was check against the records in the National Registration Department.

Lim again challenged Ling to resign should an independent verification exercise expose the existence of phantom members.

He also criticised the party chief for challenging Team B to produce evidence of phantom members during the recent Ketari by-election campaign.

"We had to remain silent then because we did not want to affect the Barisan Nasional campaign," he said.

Party vice-president Chua said the team had submitted evidence of the phantom members to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi but declined to reveal further details.

He stressed that Team B leaders were not questioning the entire membership list of the party, only the new list of 138,000 members approved by the central committee late last year.

Asked if the complaints about the phantom members were dealt with by the party elections steering committee headed by secretary-general Dr Ting Chew Peh, he replied, "They deleted some names but that's not enough. They should go after those who manufactured the phantom members."

Not a trivial matter

When asked why the evidence was not released immediately, Chua said it would be done in due time. Central committee member Wong said the team was also being cautious as they did not want it to be brushed off as a "matter of triviality".

"If you have thousands of phantom members but divide the number by some 4,000 branches nationwide, you may say it is unimportant. But of these thousands of phantom members, how many times, crimes such as forgery, abetting and condonation have been committed?" he questioned.

"The important thing is that the person who did all these cheated the party, Barisan Nasional, and the country. He must be tried and sentenced," he said.

He also described the problem of phantom members in MCA as "far worse" than that during the Neo Yee Pan-Tan Koon Swan rivalry in 1980s.

"Back then, there were only 1,000 to 2,000 phantom members and they were confined to one area.

"I was involved in the leadership crisis and was one of those who raised the issue of the phantom members," said Wong.

He lamented that those individuals who had helped him then to expose the phantom members scam and toppled Neo's faction are now the source of the problem.

MCA concluded its branch elections on Sunday and will conduct divisional polls on April 28. The annual general assembly has been scheduled on June 29 where central leaders will be voted in for a three-year term.