Barisan Nasional interests are above that of any individual hence component party leaders must be willing to give and take in order to avoid factional fights, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today.

"We cannot let BN component parties, especially the big ones, to be weakened by internal fights.

"A party must and will be the winner if the members give their support to the party instead of any leader or faction," said the premier in his opening speech of the MCA 49th annual general assembly at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

MCA was embroiled in a year-long internal conflict which split the second largest BN party which has more than one million members into two camps Team A led by president Dr Ling Liong Sik and Team B by his deputy Lim Ah Lek.

The conflict, heightened following the president-backed MCA acquisition of Nanyang Press, the publisher of two Chinese dailies, in May.

However, the feuding factions agreed to a peace plan proposed by Mahathir in April to resolve the problems in the party.

Hint for Ling

Meanwhile, citing himself as an example, the premier said today it is important to ensure smooth transition within a party to avoid any possible power struggle.

Some delegates said that this could be a hint for the MCA president who has been at the helm for 16 years but party leaders said otherwise.

"The concept and foundation of BN is bigger than any of us, no matter how great a leader we are, no matter how popular we are.

"As you know I have decided to step down. Nobody pushed me down. It is a decision I took myself because I believe that the time has come for me to hand over the leadership of Umno and BN to another person," said the premier who will step down next October.

Mahathir also endorsed his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as his successor and outlined the latter's powers upon assuming prime ministership.

"It is a tradition that the president of Umno, the biggest party in the Alliance and the BN, to chair the coalition. As head of the coalition, he becomes the head of the biggest party in Parliament," said Mahathir.

He added the head of the ruling coalition will then become the prime minister who will have the right to nominate members of his Cabinet.

Such a tradition is unwritten but has "enabled us to effect changes in the leadership of the government smoothly", said the premier.

The 76-year-old premier, who has been in office for 21 years, also urged MCA to uphold the tradition and give its full support to Abdullah.

Mahathir's speech generated different responses within MCA.

Not a hint

Party veteran Lee Kim Sai, when met later, said he felt that Mahathir expressed hope that BN leaders would practise smooth transition in their respective parties.

However he was quick to add that "I don't think feel that he (Mahathir) had given any hint that MCA should follow his example".

"He never said Ling should step down. He only meant it as a principle for all BN parties to observe if there's any power transition," said Lee who was MCA deputy president from 1986 to 1996.

He said he did not see any move towards a transition within MCA at the moment but added any further questions should be posed to the present top leaders.

MCA vice-chairperson Ong Ka Ting also believes that the prime minister was not hinting that party leaders should step down soon.

"To my understanding, the tradition that he mentioned meant that Umno should continue to lead the BN and did not mean that MCA should follow Umno when there is a power transition," he told reporters.

Meanwhile, MCA deputy president Lim Ah Lek said he did not have an answer when asked if Mahathir's comments on power transition was targetted at the party.

Lim said he had not held any private talk with the party president over succession.

Last month at the MCA Youth AGM, Lim had called on the top leaders, including Ling to step down with him from their posts like Mahathir in order to pave way for younger leaders.

Following this call, Ling said he would prefer to discuss with his deputy privately over succession within the party.