MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik hinted today that there was unlikely to be any transition of power within the party similar to that of Umno in the near future.

"Every party has it own circumstances. We never tell any party to emulate MCA, therefore it will not be right for others to ask us to emulate them," he said after chairing a presidential council meeting that lasted almost three hours this evening at party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

When asked, he said the succession plan within MCA was not discussed at the meeting today.

Last Friday, deputy president Lim Ah Lek, had called for the top leaders of MCA, him included, to "emulate the fine example" set by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad who had recently announced his plan to resign 16 months to come.

Saying that he was willing to go anytime soon, Lim had added that he would have done the same and announced the successor if he were the party president.

Both Lim and Ling are openly bitter rivals since MCA took over two Chinese newspapers last year.

Lim had opposed the deal, claiming that it hurt the feelings of Chinese Malaysians; but Ling had described the deal as good business and a "strategic political investment".

Peace plan

In recent months, both the leaders engaged in war of words. Lim alleged that the party was tainted with phantom members and demanded for a verification of the list of some 140,000 new members recruited last year; but Ling dismissed it as a tactic by his opponent to delay the party election.

In April, Mahathir put forward a peace plan to end the bickering within MCA. The plan stated, among others, that the status quo be preserved for all party posts pending a party election which would be postponed indefinitely.

The party eventually endorsed the peace plan but decided that the party poll would proceed with 'no contest' for all levels except branch since that was already over by the time the plan came into being.

Lim claimed recently that the peace plan was amended during implementation and thus had not adhered to Mahathir's original scheme.

In recent months, there was much speculation that Ling may step down before the next general election. However, the party chief who has been in power since 1986 has dismissed it as a "rumour".

He has denied three times last month that he would quit soon.