MCA vice-president Chua Jui Meng today lambasted his party leadership for acting like " tow-kay s" (big bosses) who do not respect the Chinese community's wishes in the controversial takeover of Nanyang Press Holdings last month.

"Why is MCA behaving like 'MCA Sdn Bhd' (private limited company)? Why is it acting like a tow-kay party instead of representing the aspirations of Chinese?" questioned Chua, who is also the health minister at a press conference after addressing delegates at a function in Kuala Lumpur.

"Why do you (MCA leaders) insist on buying it when the whole Chinese community is clearly against it?" he added.

Chua was among the eight party central committee members who voted against the then proposed takeover of Nanyang Press, publisher of dailies Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press , by Huaren Holdings, MCA's investment arm.

However, the deal was backed by the other 32 members of the committee. The takeover has since worsened the split within the party as both camps sought to mobilise support from party members nationwide.

According to national news agency Bernama , MCA president Ling Liong Sik has asked the Huaren trustees who disagreed with the Nanyang takeover deal to resign.

The MCA president was quoted as saying that the trustees were duty-bound to endorse the deal as it had been approved by the party's Presidential Council and Central Committee.

"If a trustee does not follow the wishes of those ... he has to resign as trustee," he said.

Despite widespread criticism from various Chinese organisations, MCA went ahead and acquired Nanyang Press Holdings from two Hume companies owned by tycoon Quek Leng Chan last month.

Proxy vote

Yesterday, Chua reportedly said he, together with two other Huaren trustees, was asked to sign over his voting rights to another central committee member Dr Chua Soi Lek who supported the takeover prior to the transaction.

It was learnt that such a move was to enable Soi Lek to vote on behalf of all the three trustees at the extraordinary general meeting of Huaren. However, Chua, who was abroad then, did not sign the document faxed to him by the private secretary of Ling.

Huaren has four trustees representing its shareholders, including Ling. Besides Chua, the other two who were asked to appoint Soi Lek as their proxy were party deputy president Lim Ah Lek and secretary-general Ting Chew Peh.

In the Nanyang takeover, Huaren Management, a subsidiary of Huaren Holdings, sought a 100 percent bank loan with its 68 million shares in Star Publications as collateral for the RM230 million purchase.

When asked for his comments on views that Huaren is not financially strong enough to take over Nanyang Press, Chua said, "I know. If people who support the deal understand the financial implications of this, they will know that this is not some golden opportunity."

"If you have read those articles written (on this) and seen the performance of Nanyang Press for the last three quarters (of the year), you will know what I mean," he added.

When asked if there has been any offer from interested parties since MCA chief Ling announced early this week that the party is willing to divest a strategic stake in Nanyang Press, Chua replied, "We can only speculate but we do not know."

He refused to comment on whether he will resort to the legal avenue at the Huaren trustees meeting tomorrow as he had earlier argued that it was an improper procedure not to seek approval from the trustees before paying 10 percent of the purchase price to the companies concerned.

"We will see tomorrow. The reason why I called for a meeting is to find a win-win solution to the situation," he said.

He said many people who are supportive of the deal have overlooked the "real issue".

Economic adventurism

"The point is, why are we going into business now? During the 80s, when we nearly lost Wisma MCA (party headquarters building) after our losses in business, the party president had already said that there would be no more economic adventurism," he said.

"But the people have short memories (and forgotten this). We are a political party and we should always separate politics from economics," he added.

When Chua was then asked to explain the existence of MCA-owned Huaren Holdings in contrast to his own remarks, he said, "Huaren was inherited (from the past). We did not create it now and back then it was an economic entity for the Chinese interests."

However, he denied that the ongoing controversy can cause an irreparable damage in the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional, saying, "The divergence is an issue problem, not a personality problem."

He also described his chief Ling's recent claim that he had earlier consented to the deal but changed his stand later as "red herring".

"You ask the Chinese community whether I goyang (change stand) on the issue or not. Everybody knows that I have been opposing the deal since the very beginning," he said.

Earlier, Chua had opened the 6th Health Ministry's Annual Health Dialogue. The event, attended by representatives from over 40 professional groups, pharmaceutical manufacturing industry and non-governmental organisations in the country, was to discuss various health issues.