UPDATED
By Syed Jaymal ZahiidKUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 — MCA leaders aligned to Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai confirmed today that they will go ahead with plans for another EGM on Nov 28, in a step which bears out a significant dissatisfaction with the recent “greater unity plan”.
Central committee member Wong Nai Chee, who is the chief requisitionist, said today fresh polls were the best way to solve the MCA crisis.
The Nov 28 EGM is designed to pave the way for fresh party elections.
“The members have the right to voice out and decide the future of the party,” he said, adding that notices would be sent out today.
Although MCA secretary-general Datuk Wong Foon Meng on Wednesday rejected the call for an EGM by 16 central committee members, Wong said today their decision to continue holding the EGM was done according to the party's constitution.
The MCA crisis was triggered by party president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat’s push to oust his deputy and enemy Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek.
An EGM was called after Dr Chua’s membership was suspended, where delegates passed by a wafer-thin majority a no-confidence vote against Ong and restored Dr Chua’s membership.
But delegates defeated a motion to specifically reinstate Dr Chua as deputy president.
Ong, citing the party constitution which says he can only be forced out by a two-thirds majority of delegates, refused to resign even though he had promised to do so earlier.
The party central committee then appointed Liow to be the new MCA No. 2.
But after the intervention of Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Ong and Dr Chua made peace.
This week, the Registrar of Societies also declared Dr Chua as the rightful No. 2. A central committee stacked with Ong and Dr Chua’s supporters endorsed this decision.
Wong today liken both Ong and Dr Chua's refusal to hold fresh polls as disrespectful towards the party's constitution which he said recognises the resolution adopted by the central delegates in the recent EGM as the supreme authority of the party.
"If we don't respect the decision of the (recent) EGM then what's the point?" he asked.
On the possible negative repercussions, especially from Najib who had brokered the peace deal in an attempt to contain the effect MCA's crisis in his bid to win back non-Malay support, Wong insists he is on the right path.
"MCA problems should be solved by MCA," he said, adding that he and other requisitionists have been getting positive feedbacks and encouragement from the party grassroots.
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