The two MCA parliamentary and state representatives who claimed they were victims of a politically-motivated smear campaign will each lodge a police report next week.

Furious with allegations that they are involved in vice activities, member of Parliament for Serdang Yap Pian Hon and Seri Kembangan state assembly representative Liew Yuen Keong are referring to the authorities to get to the root of the matter.

"We will submit to the police copies of the two letters containing the allegations which were published in Chinese dailies and letters posted to the Chinese-language online discussion groups," Yap said when contacted yesterday.

Last week, a group of women who called themselves "28 wives of Serdang MCA members" sent an open letter to MCA Wanita chief Dr Ng Yen Yen claiming that their husbands frequented 'politically-protected' brothels in the area.

Although no names were mentioned, several popular Chinese-language online discussion groups linked Yap and Liew to the vice activities. The duo have strongly denied the allegations, saying that the letter was a politically motivated attempt to "wallop" Yap and Team B.

Yap, a former party vice-president, is a key supporter of the MCA Team B. MCA was split into two camps Team A headed by president Dr Ling Liong Sik and Team B helmed by his deputy Lim Ah Lek when the party took over two Chinese newspapers, Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press last year.

The deal engineered by Team A garnered strong opposition from several party leaders and the Chinese community.

'Political character assassination'

Following the brouhaha created by the letter recently, the Serdang MCA division had advertised in several Chinese dailies for the purported group of women to come forward and lodge an official complaint within one week.

But in a dramatic turn of events, two days after the advertisement, the group apparently sent another open letter to the press and to announce that they have reconciled with their families.

Yap said the whole incident was filled with a hidden political agenda and is a "political character assassination".

"If they (the women) really wanted to resolve the constituency's vice activities, they should come forward and tell us more. But by using this issue to attack their leaders, they are committing political character assassination," he said.

Asked why he was implicated, Yap, who has been the Serdang MP for seven terms, said: "The general election is coming soon. Linking an elected representative with vice activities is the easiest way to attack him or destroy his reputation [so that he will be easily booted out from his constituency]."

Yap also revealed that not all the 28 signatures in the first letter were genuine.

"We asked a hand-writing expert to verify the signatures for us, and we believe the 28 names were signed by five people only," he said.

He also added that two police reports were lodged with the Serdang police over the week by two women whose names were found in the letter.

"They felt shocked and baffled when they saw their names appeared in the newspaper as they never signed this so-called petition," he said.