A police report was lodged against the Petaling Jaya Utara MCA division chairperson Dr Wong Sai Hou today for allegedly being responsible for the setting up of 17 phantom party branches in the division.

The report was lodged by the division's adviser Wong Leong at the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters.

Leong, who claims to have the backing of 18 branch leaders, told a press conference later that he had to seek police intervention because Sai Hou failed to evince any initiative to resolve the phantom branches issue.

"Instead of resolving the problem, the chairperson kept attacking his critics in the press and tried to sweep the problem under the carpet," he said.

According to Leong, the existence of phantom branches has gone beyond party affairs and become a matter of public interest as the branches were reported to have started collecting membership fees.

A police spokesperson confirmed that the report was lodged and said that the matter was being investigated.

Fake members

The matter of phantom branches came to light when delegates at the recent Selangor MCA convention were told that 17 new branches had been set up while five others were awaiting approval.

Several party leaders claimed that the phantom branches consisted of 'fake members' and were not registered according to proper procedures.

There was widespread speculation that the branches were set up to secure the positions of several key leaders in the party elections next year.

According to the party constitution, any branch can be set up with a minimum of 50 members after it is approved by the divisional committee.

Of the 50, a maximum of three delegates will be elected to attend the divisional meeting and the following state convention where central delegates will be chosen to the general assembly. The general assembly is where the top leadership is voted.

The PJ Utara division claims to have 7,000 members and currently has 24 central delegates representing the state at the general assembly.

Although Sai Hou has claimed that the 17 branches went through normal registration procedures, more than half of the registered 31 branches in the division have called for an extraordinary general meeting where it is likely that a no-confidence vote would be passed on Sai Hou.

Leong said, contrary to Sai Hou's claim that the branches were set up with consensus from divisional committee members, a majority of the committee members during their last meeting in October, strongly opposed the idea.

"We were promised that the applications will not be approved until an ad hoc committee which was set up earlier finishes its investigation into the matter," said Leong.

Following that, Leong said, the ad hoc committee recommended for the applications to be frozen and voiced their concern over the matter to party president Dr Ling Liong Sik last December.

However, all the branches were still set up amid the complaints and recommendations from the divisional committee, Leong added.

He said due to the secretive manner in which the approval was sought, the registered addresses and protem committee members of the 17 branches remain unknown to date.

Also present at today' press conference were the heads of 18 PJ Utara branches, MCA legal bureau deputy chairperson Vincent Lim, division secretary and Damansara Utama state assembly representative Lim Choon Kim.

Internal affair

Meanwhile, division chairperson Sai Hou when contacted by malaysiakini said he never closed the door on discussions to resolve what he termed as "internal affairs".

However, he declined to comment on the allegation that he was responsible for the setting up of the phantom branches.

"All the problems should become clearer tomorrow," said Sai Hou, referring to the divisional committee meeting which is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

Political observers are likening the latest episode of phantom branches to the presence of phantom voters in many divisions at the height of the MCA crisis during the 1980s, which resulted from a power struggle between the then acting president Neo Yee Pan and his opponent Tan Koon Swan.

The PJ Utara division was said to be one of the areas worst affected by phantom voters then. The party subsequently took the case to court to clarify the status of many dubious voters but no individuals were convicted.