The recent cabinet reshuffle has sparked a dispute within MCA, with Gelang Patah MP Tan Ah Eng refuting MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek's claim that she was in the recommended list for a deputy minister's position.

NONE Tan ( left ) claimed that Chua had only submitted one name to premier Najib Abdul Razak, and that the latter had no choice but to pick Chua's son Tee Yong to fill the post of deputy agriculture minister.

"I checked with the PM last night. He said he took all the names submitted by Chua," said Tan, who is also the Wanita MCA deputy chief.

"I want justice!" she told a press conference at the Parliament lobby, insinuating that she had been wronged and  had not been considered for the deputy minister post as reported earlier.

She also said the prime minister had never questioned her capability as an MP.

Earlier, in defending his move to nominate Tee Yong, Soi Lek had said that he had submitted two names to the prime minister, and the two were MCA MPs who did not have or had never held any government post.

"We have 15 MPs. Out of the 15, 13 are either holding posts or have held posts before in the government. So I submitted the remaining two names - Chua Tee Yong and Tan Ah Eng to the prime minister."

Far from the truth

However, Tan claimed that this is far from the truth as she had met with Najib last night to confirm this.

"The prime minister told me that 'I respect the MCA president so I only took the names submitted by him'," she said indicating that her name had not been submitted at all.

NONE Responding to Tan's accusation, Chua ( right ) maintained that he had submitted two names for the prime minister's consideration - those of Tan and Tee Yong.

He stressed that the choices made were the final decision of the prime minister.

"The PM has made it clear why he made such appointments, so there is no need for me to make a further statement to support it."

When asked about the issue of Tan's ability, Chua played it coy.

"People like Chua Soi Lek always speak directly, but this time I want to be a little bit conservative, I want to save some person's face, if not this will be very embarrassing," he said.

He added that there are many things to be taken into consideration when appointing someone to a a government post.

He made the comments after meeting representatives of the Federation of Sundry Goods Merchants Associations of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.