MCA Youth chief Ong Tee Keat maintained his stand that the party was infiltrated by triads despite initial police investigations stating otherwise.

"If the police have concluded the investigation, then we can say MCA is clear from triad politics, but the police merely said it was initial (finding)," he said when contacted yesterday.

He was reacting to a statement from Deputy Home Minister Zainal Abidin Zin in the Dewan Rakyat on Monday that the police have yet to establish any connection between the party and triad leaders.

More evidence

In March, Ong created an uproar when he claimed that several top leaders in MCA had links with triad leaders and he submitted two names to the police. However, he was later referred to the disciplinary committee for allegedly tarnishing the party's image.

"Being a senior government official, I am responsible for what I have said and what I have done," said the Youth chief, who is also deputy youth and sports minister.

Asked if he would furnish more evidence to the police, he declined to elaborate beyond saying,"I am continuing to do it".

On Monday, newly elected MCA president Ong Ka Ting said theYouth chief had not intended to accuse the leadership but his words were "twisted and played-up" by the media.

He also declined to comment whether the disciplinary committee would punish the whistle blower but added that the matter would be resolved internally.

Responding to this, Tee Keat merely said: "I let people have their say".

Poison-pen letter

Police investigations began when the MCA president lodged a report in May regarding a widely-circulated poison-pen letter which claimed that he had links with two triad leaders who were named.

The letter claimed that Ka Ting - during his tenure as deputy home minister from 1995 to 1999 - had abused his ministerial powers to help the duo when they ran foul of the law.

It was also claimed that the duo were later made MCA divisional chiefs in Penang and Selangor respectively and had allegedly helped recruit gangsters as party members.

On the photographs that showed him in the company of one of the triad leaders and that he had sent condolences on the demise of one of their fathers which appeared in an obituary published in a Chinese daily, the MCA president said these do not show any "specific indication of anything illegal".

Meanwhile, met at the Parliament lobby yesterday, MCA central committee member Fu Ah Kiow said the party will concentrate on issues affecting the Chinese community rather than focusing on the allegations.