The political future of Dr Tan Yee Kew will depend on her appeal against her suspension by the party's presidential council. She is expected to do so within the stipulated 14 days.

The party's central committee is slated to meet on June 24, a day before nomination for the party's state elections.

If the central committee do not make decision on June 24, the MCA Wanita deputy chairperson will not be able to take part in the state election scheduled on July 3.

At stake are all her party posts and her government position as parliamentary secretary to the International Trade and Industry Ministry.

What is perhaps surprising to her supporters is that although Tan had prepared an elaborate defence to the presidential council's hearing, she was still slapped with the one-year suspension

In her defence document, Tan explained in detail how the Astro AEC Manadrin News got hold of the VCD, why she passed the VCD to the police, why she made the second VCD and how the VCD was used in a press conference.

Tan who is also Selangor MCA Wanita chairperson was suspended after she was found guilty of breaching the party's code of conduct.

She was penalised for distributing a video-recording of a fracas which took place during the Jalan Young MCA branch election on April 17.

Astro Mandarin news

The branch election was a fight between former Port Klang state assembleperson Teh Chang Ying and businessperson Ng Wee Keong.

Tan was said to have whisked away a man who had allegedly kicked Teh Hooi Ching, daughter of Pandamaran state assemblyperson Teh Kim Poh on the day the election was held.

Tan and Kim Poh are known political rivals in Klang. Ng is aligned to Tan while Chang Ying is in Kim Poh's camp.

On May 29 at the party's divisional election, Tan lost the Klang division chairperson's post to Kim Poh.

In her statement, Tan said the video-recording was passed to the Astro AEC Mandarin without notifying her.

" Bernama (which supplies news to Astro) had prior to the branch election asked me if their TV crew could follow me when I went to visit the branches on the election day. As it was a rather common request, I agreed," she said.

She said, on April 16, when the Wanita and the Youth had their elections, Bernama called and said they could not spare their camera and asked her if they could have a copy of her tape since she had her own video camera.

"Again, it was not an unusual request and I agreed and told my cameraman to give a copy of the tape to Bernama if they asked for it later," she said.

However, she said, Bernama did not come to collect the tape on April 16.

She said she was not aware that the Bernama cameraman came to collect the tape on April 17 after she returned to her office at about 5.30pm after the Jalan Young's scuffle.

"Many voters had already gathered in front of my service centre as the Petaling Indah Branch election was scheduled to start at 6pm at the hall of the top floor. The crowd was big and the situation was quite chaotic," she said.

VCD given to police

She said on April 18, when she and a few members were watching the tape, a member told her that the same one was shown on Astro news.

"I was shocked and later found out from my cameraman that he had indeed given the tape to Bernama .

"He said he could not locate me when the Bernama cameraman came and since I had told him earlier that Bernama could have a copy, he gave him a copy," she added.

She said on April 19, she explained the problem to party president Ong Ka Ting and deputy president Chan Kong Choy. Ong subsequently advised her to retract the tape from Bernama.

"I called up Bernama immediately and wrote to them officially to request them to retract the tape. Bernama wrote back to apologise and admit they could not reconfirm with me as they were rushing for news time," she elaborated.

She said she surrendered the VCD to the police at their request for the purpose of investigation as three police reports had been lodged relating to the fight at the Jalan Young branch election.

"I must do so under the law," said Tan.

Altered VCD

On allegation against her that she made a second VCD which has been altered, she said she did it to allow the disciplinary board to have a clearer picture of who were involved in the fight.

"I made the second VCD with names on it and with some slow motion scenes. The VCD was submitted to the disciplinary board on April 28," she said.

She also denied that copies of the VCD have been distributed to the public.

"I can ascertain that until today, only a few branch chairpersons and their members had watched the VCD. They are not outsiders but concerned party members," she said.

"Unfortunately, people with sinister motive had spread rumours that the VCD was shown to (Chinese) associations and coffee shops and could be bought at pasar malam. None of these was true when I carried out an investigation," she added.

She said since Ng Wee Keong and his supporters were accused by Teh's camp that they were not party members and that they were paid RM50 for protection, she consented to Ng downloading the relevant photos from the VCD.

"I agreed to give the VCD because I felt Ng has the right to clear his and his supporters' names as the accusation were repeatedly made publicly," she added.