Wee wants one EGM to sort out MCA mess

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 – MCA Youth chief Wee Ka Siong said today there was no need for two extraordinary general meetings to resolve the party crisis, in remarks that appeared to signal moves to thwart supporters of Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek.

Wee, one of the national leaders backing Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat in expelling Dr Chua, said that an EGM was the best way to solve the party’s worse leadership crisis in decades.

He said that the subject of the two EGMs – one called by the party president and the other by Dr Chua’s backers – were essentially the same.

But The Malaysian Insider understands that Dr Chua’s camp is still continuing moves to collect enough signatures to petition for an EGM. They need just 800 signatures to compel an EGM. The two main points on their EGM agenda is to compel the reinstatement of Dr Chua as deputy president, and to pass a vote of no-confidence against Ong as president.

A presidential council stacked with Ong’s supporters expelled FDr Chua from the party last week. But the reason for Dr Chua’s removal is tenuous – dredging up his sex scandal from late 2007 from which he had already resigned once and come back later from the dead to win the deputy presidency last year.

Ong, who is fighting for his political life, announced yesterday his own move to call for an EGM. On the agenda is to effectively seek an endorsement of the delegates of his decision to sack Dr Chua. Also on the agenda will be his handling as Transport Minister of the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) affair.

Ong is betting his career on his carefully-crafted image of being a leader who has made the unpopular decision to make damaging disclosures of wrongdoings in the PKFZ project.

But his recent tiff with PKFZ contractor Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd’s (KDSB) CEO Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing has badly damaged his reputation. Tiong has accused Ong of taking RM10 million in donations from the business tycoon which is now unaccounted for.

Ong has also admitted taking free rides on KDSB’s private jets, suggesting he had close ties with Tiong.