MCA should not delay the disbursement of the Chang Min Thien Foundation (CMTF) fund after a court ruling yesterday giving control of the RM10 million fund to the formerly MCA-owned Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd, said party's youth chief Ong Tee Keat today.

Ong Tee Keat told malaysiakini that he would not like to see a repeat of the past when internal party crisis partly prevented the charity fund from being activated to help needy students.

"Any kind of the problems should not be made as excuses to impede the use of the CMTF, and the trustees should honestly exercise their responsibility," said Ong, adding that he understands the worry and misgivings of the public regarding the delay of the foundation's activation for over 20 years.

MCA is currently undergoing another round of power struggle involving party president Dr Ling Liong Sik and his deputy Lim Ah Lek, with rumours recently circulating that Lim was putting pressure on Ling to resign along with the arrangement of replacing Health Minister Chua Jui Meng with Chan Kong Choy in the cabinet post.

Chan, who is aligned with Lim, is the only of the four vice-presidents not having a full minister's post, while Chua, the senior vice-president, is believed to be not linked to either faction.

Last year on Oct 30, it was widely reported that Ling attributed the delay in the CMTF fund taking off was caused by a series of events, such as the death of the donor, the MCA leadership crisis in 1983 to 1985, the collapse of the deposit-taking co-operatives and other factors.

The Court of Appeal yesterday set aside a High Court decision which gave sole control and management of the RM10 million trust fund held by Multi-Purpose Holdings to a company owned by a Singaporean.

Transparency required

On Sept 30 last year, High Court judge Saari Yusoff had ruled that sole control and management of the RM10 million for the proposed CMTF be given to General Holdings Sdn Bhd.

The ruling of the Appeal Court should now allow efforts to speed up the disbursement of the foundation's fund for the poor and needy students, said Ong, who hogged the media limelight last year as the sole MCA leader who called for transparency and accountability in the management of the fund.

Ong's frank views then resulted in some party members calling on disciplinary action to be taken against him, with Ling imposing a "gag" order on the party leaders who could speak about the CMTF fund.

Ling, by virtue of his party post and several other party leaders sit on the CMTF board of trustees.

Ong today noted that the foundation is strictly for a good cause concerning the public interests, and the board of trustees overseeing the fund should make the financial report of the foundation open to the public annually.

"There should be transparency, so that the public will be able to check the financial report," Ong stressed.

On Nov 27, 1980, Chang sold all his shares in Dominion Holdings Sdn Bhd and General Industries Sdn Bhd to MPHB for RM206.3 million.

MPHB paid the entire purchase sum less RM10 million to General Holdings Sdn Bhd which was owned by Chang.

Trust fund in vacuum

In 1990, MPHB took steps to form a limited company for charitable purposes and appointed its nominees as the initial trustees to oversee the RM10 million to be used for charitable purposes, especially education.

On Sept 6, 1990, General Holdings made a demand for the return of the RM10 million, filing a suit in 1991 that the RM10 million cannot become a trust fund in vacuum as the fund and the gift could only be effective if it had been transferred to a foundation set up by Chang himself.

In his judgment on Sept 30 last year, Justice Saari ruled in favour of General Holdings, ordering the RM10 million be returned by MPHB. Subsequently, Ling said that MPHB would appeal the High Court's decision.