Two Chinese newspapers which were taken over by MCA last year today carried the same editorial blaming Team B for creating chaos within and weakening the party by seeking an extraordinary general meeting to resolve the controversy over its membership list.
The editorial in Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press written by Hoong Soon Kean, the editor-in-chief for both dailies spelt out the legal complications of such a requisition.
Entitled MCA EGM full of problems, the editorial said it was unlikely that the EGM would be held before the party division elections scheduled on April 28, after which the fresh batch of 2,667 delegates would have been chosen.
After that date (April 28), new delegates would have been voted in. There is bound to be a dispute over who should attend the annual general meeting then. This, coupled with the constraints of the party constitution, will only create chaos within MCA and deal another blow to the party.
Team Bs plot of a coup through the EGM will not materialise as easily as the faction thinks, Hoong wrote.
Hoong was once deputy editor-in-chief of Nanyang s rival newspaper Sin Chew Jit Poh and later a businessman before he was offered to helm Nanyang immediately after MCAs controversial takeover through its investment arm Huaren Holdings last May.
He was appointed editor-in-chief of China Press last month in a move which some claimed was to represent the interests of certain MCA leaders in the run-up to the party elections.
Support for factions revealed
In his editorial today, Hoong said the latest development on the call for an EGM had indicated the strength and the frailty of the feuding factions within MCA.
Though Team B had collected 810 signatures from the delegates putting aside the authenticity of the delegates the move had exposed their weaknesses as Team A was quick enough to collect signatures from 1,526 or two-thirds of the delegates who opposed the EGM.
If the figure is seen as an indicator, it is clear which faction is strong and which is weak in MCA, Hoong wrote.
He also said the claim that Team B was trying to postpone the party elections with allegations of phantom members because its leaders felt insecure about their future position was not without basis .
Team Bs move to seek to establish an independent committee to verify the membership list through an EGM was described as aggressive and was tantamount to passing a no-confidence vote against the 40-member central committee led by party president Dr Ling Liong Sik, added Hoong.
Majority want polls
Last Friday, after three Team B leaders submitted their official requisition for an EGM, party chief and Team A leader Ling had reportedly said an independent verification committee was unnecessary.
He said this was because the party elections steering committee headed by secretary-general Dr Ting Chew Peh as well as the National Registration Department (NRD) had done their part to clean up the membership list.
He added that an overwhelming majority of the party members wanted the polls to go ahead, but stressed that Ting will have the final say on the EGM.
Polling had started at branch level last Sunday, followed by the division elections at the end of this month and state-level elections next month.
It will culminate in the June 29 annual general assembly where central leaders, including president, deputy president, and four vice-presidents, will be elected for a three-year term.
