MCA Youth secretary-general and Bentong MP Liow Tiong Lai declared today that he is ready to vacate his seat to enable party deputy president Lim Ah Lek to make a comeback to active politics.

Liow said the important factor now is Lim's willingness to be active in politics again. "Other considerations including choosing a [parliamentary] seat for him to contest is the least of our concerns at the moment".

"I am prepared to vacate my seat for Datuk Lim. That is not a problem for me", he told malaysiakini .

"Even Pahang Menteri Besar (Adnan Yaakob) had earlier said that Lim can contest anywhere in Pahang because he is accepted by many people in the state," Liow said.

The MCA deputy president is from Pahang and the holder of the Bentong parliamentary seat for several terms. Prior to the 1999 general election, he stepped down from the cabinet and gave up the Bentong seat to Liow who was then his political secretary.

Leadership still needed

Liow, well known for his allegiance to Lim, also echoed the sentiments of many Team B leaders saying that "Lim's leadership is still needed in the MCA and that his comeback will further rejuvenate the party".

"I am confident that Lim will lead MCA to another level. He will be able to consolidate and strengthen the divided party given the support of the Chinese community and other BN leaders", Liow added.

But the generous Liow may not have to give his Bentong seat to his former boss as under the recent redelineation exercise of electoral boundaries, Pahang will get three new parliamentary seats.

There was a report in the Chinese press quoting a "reliable source" claiming that Lim would be given the new Indera Mahkota seat in the next general election.

Since late September, Lim has hinted that he would be ready to make a political comeback if his involvement in the next general election could make the ruling BN stronger and attract more Chinese Malaysians to support the coalition.

MCA became bitterly split after the party took over two Chinese dailies last year. Team A is led by party president Dr Ling Liong Sik while Lim is leading Team B the group which opposed it.

Show of strength

On Wednesday, the deputy president did not fail the 26,000 people who turned up at a dinner rally in Seremban to hear him speak when he announced that he was ready to be MCA's 'comeback kid'.

Lim's analogy, that "a retired lifeguard will not hesitate to save someone from drowning", justified his decision and the reason for the gathering, the first of a nationwide roadshow for Team B.

The 26,000 dinner-paying crowd who attended the event at Bandar Springhill near Port Dickson was equally impressive enough to bring the Malaysian Book of Records representatives to document the achievement.

Interestingly, the mammoth rally was given scant attention in the Team A-controlled Chinese newspapers thus lending credence to Team B's grouses that the president's men were controlling all the media under the party's wing.

Another point worth noting is that the Seremban dinner was organised by the MCA Negeri Sembilan leader Yeow Chai Thiam who was once a staunch supporter of Ling and Team A.