A faction of Chinese-based party MCA is staging what it calls "the biggest dinner in the country's political history" in a show of might after months of uneasy truce between opposing camps.

The dinner planned for tomorrow for 26,000 people in Negeri Sembilan is organised by the Rasah division to show the "grassroots' political frustration against the party's dictatorial leadership", officials say.

The division is aligned to the so-called "Team B" faction led by MCA deputy president Lim Ah Lek, which is mounting a challenge to the "Team A" camp led by party president and Transport Minister Dr Ling Liong Sik.

The two rival camps have been embroiled in a bitter feud since last year, forcing Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to intervene in April to help mend the split in the 52-year-old MCA, the second largest in the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition of racially-based parties.

Chinese votes, which helped BN to victory in 1999 polls after it lost Malay support to the opposition, remain a crucial factor in the next elections amid a split in the Malay heartland, analysts say.

But MCA officials said the party's leadership battle was unlikely to affect Chinese support for the ruling coalition.

Message to Ling

A senior party official told AFP the event, dubbed the "Super New Hope Dinner", was aimed at sending a message to Ling's camp that "Team B has the solid support of the Chinese community".

"It's not a head-on collision but it's a show of force and strength, a show of grassroot support for Team B."

MCA Rasah chief Yeow Chai Thiam said 26,000 tickets sold at RM15 ringgit each have all been snapped up, making the dinner the biggest ever in record-crazy Malaysia, surpassing the 25,000 people who set the benchmark at a meal on Mahathir's birthday last year.

The official said the dinner was part of a nationwide roadshow by Team B to reach out to the grassroots since a truce in April following a "peace plan" proposed by Mahathir which led to no-contest party polls in June.

With Ling's camp controlling several mainstream newspapers, Team B has been left out in the cold, he said.

"We are not against the PM's peace plan but the plan doesn't resolve anything. There is no hostility in the dinner but we want the grassroots to know the real picture," he added.

Yeow said the Chinese communities in rural areas were generally politically immature and had a tendency to fear politicians on whom they relied for business and financial aid.

"We want them to know that they hold the power and that politicians are there to serve them and not to act as dictators. They must be brave enough to topple leaders who fail to perform," he added.

He did not name any politicians but Team B has been pushing for Ling, who has been in power since 1986, to step down especially after Mahathir himself announced in June he would retire in October 2003.

Smooth transition of power

MCA's Lim recently said there were calls by members to limit the president's tenure to three terms or nine years.

"The Chinese community overall feels that Ling has to go. There must be a smooth transition of power," another official said.

The rift in MCA, which has some 850,000 members, came to a head in May last year with Ling announcing he would step down from the cabinet but later withdrawing his resignation.

The two camps also locked horns over MCA's controversial move last year to buy two independent Chinese newspapers amid protests from the community who feared a further erosion of press freedom. AFP