MCA Youth kicked off its inquiry into last week's ruckus at the Youth annual general assembly (AGM) by interviewing six witnesses, including the assembly speaker today.

Chair of the five-person committee, acting secretary-general Liow Tiong Lai, said assembly speaker Lim Hong Sang had given his full testimony to the committee.

"Lim told us in detail regarding the man who went on the podium and snatched away his microphone," said Liow.

Pandemonium broke out at the Youth AGM last Friday when scores of delegates attacked one another with chairs at the Flamingo Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

The assembly was earlier interrupted by a bomb scare.

However, when the meeting resumed after an all-clear signal from the bomb squad, the assembly turned rowdy when a section of the delegates demanded that the speaker be replaced for being "bias".

Some attempted to pull Lim off the stage but were thwarted by his bodyguards.

Minutes later, when it was secretary-general Yew Teong Look's turn to table the annual report, he chose to question the legality of the June 23 emergency general meeting (EGM).

He also echoed the demands of his faction that Lim be replaced.

Following that, some of the delegates started to throw chairs at one another, resulting in a few people being injured.

Videotapes

Later, the assembly passed a resolution to dismiss secretary-general Yew and vice-chairman Loh Seng Kok, both of whom are considered to be aligned to party president Ling Liong Sik and are at logger-head with Youth chief Ong Tee Keat's supporters.

However, Yew's faction of 300 delegates were not present during the vote since they had decided to leave the hall soon after ruckus.

Acting secretary-general Low said that since Monday, the committee had reviewed videotapes, photographs collected from various sources and newspaper cuttings.

He said the inquiry is expected to be concluded within two weeks.

However, he refused to reveal the identity of other witnesses who had testified today apart from stating that MCA Youth chief On was not on the list.

On whether the report will be released to the public, Low said it would be decided by On at a later date.

He added that the committee would determine whether discipline action be taken against those responsible in the chaos after it has completed its investigation.

"We request witnesses to come forward voluntarily to help us," he urged.

General will

According to MCA Youth legal bureau chief Lim Seng Chai, the committee would not question the motive and intention of the outbreak of violence.

"We are only recording the facts," Lim added.

Meanwhile, Sinchew-i.com reported that six MCA Youth state chiefs and some of the delegates had requested its deputy chairman Hoo Seang Chang to prepare a report on the dispute and present it to the MCA headquarters.

Hoo explained that it was general will of the state chiefs and delegates to present the report to the headquarters instead of the youth wing.

The report will cover the controversy surrounding the June 23 EGM which saw a vast majority of the delegates voting against the party's controversial takeover of Nanyang Press, which publishes two major Chinese dailies.

Yew's faction had claimed that the EGM was "unconstitutional".

"I hope MCA will handle it properly in order to get the Youth wing to operate again," said Hoo.