MCA disciplinary committee has fixed March 31 to hear complaints that Youth chief O­ng Tee Keat ( photo ) had tarnished the party's image, chairperson Kam Woon Wah said today.

The committee held a preliminary meeting at 12 noon at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. It studied documents and information related to the complaints.

Not called in

Ong, and the two unidentified party leaders, whom he had earlier alleged to be triad elements, were not called in to give their statements today.

Kam said the committee would investigate o­ng first before proceeding to investigate the alleged involvement of the other two.

"We want to listen to his (Ong's) explanation of all the complaints," he told reporters at the end of the hour-long committee meeting.

Ong who has yet to state whether he will co-operate with the disciplinary committee in their investigation, could not be reached for comment today.

The case had been referred to the committee for "further action" after the presidential council ruled Tuesday that he had tarnished the image of the party, its leaders and the Barisan Nasional with his "frequent outbursts and innuendos".

The outspoken leader had last week claimed that triads had infiltrated the party. Subsequently, he submitted two names to then acting Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in an attempt to substantiate his claim.

Abdullah, who is also the home minister, however gave the names to MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik and urged the latter to investigate and resolve the issue.

Ling has said the two names would be kept secret until a thorough investigation by the party's disciplinary committee is completed.

Two years ago, Kam had headed another ad hoc committee which held o­ng responsible for the fracas at the MCA Youth 2001 annual general assembly. The finding resulted in the suspension of the entire Youth leadership for six months.

Drug offence

Meanwhile, a Chinese daily reported that Deputy Home Minister Zainal Abidin Zin told parliament yesterday the police were investigating the allegations by O­ng regarding triad infiltration into MCA.

"Everything is just allegation and speculation now. We need to investigate to see if it is true," he was quoted as saying by Sin Chew Daily .

He said police would not take the allegation lightly because o­ne of the two MCA leaders named by o­ng was "previously arrested under the Dangerous Drugs Act (amendment) 1998".

He said the detainee was "released before becoming a leader in Penang MCA".

Zainal was responding to a question from PAS Youth chief Mahfuz Omar (PAS-Pokok Sena) as to why the police took such a long time to solve cases such as o­ng's allegation of triad politics in MCA.

Party sources had said the two persons named by o­ng were "holding the posts of MCA divisional chief and above" and "known to be close to certain top leaders".