Tee Keat's pre-emptive strike

Four appointed MCA Central Committee (CC) members -- Datuk Chor Chee Heung, Yoo Wei Hou, Chai Kim Sen and Gan Hong Su --have been sacked from their posts.

Chor, who is Deputy Finance Minister, said the four of them received their termination letters at about 10.30am on Tuesday.

"The termination came as a surprise to us as we were ready to attend the central committee meeting today where an important agenda has been listed by the president, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, to discuss the party's greater unity plan, he told reporters at the MCA headquarters here.

He said Ong had appointed three new CC members to fill the vacancies but did not mention who they were.

Describing the president's decision to sack them as a mockery, Chor said: "On the one hand, he talks about unity, on the other, he has the intention to get rid of people who do not agree with his views.

"We believe, by doing this, more is to come...to safeguard his position as MCA president after receiving a no-confidence vote from the central delegates during the MCA's extraordinary general meeting (EGM) recently," he said.

He said his position as deputy defence minister would not be affected by his sacking as an MCA CC member as it was the prerogative of the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Chor suggested that the MCA hold fresh elections to have a strong group of leaders.

Meanwhile, Yoo said he and his assistant, Gan Hong Su, had given their full commitment to the party.

- Bernama

Meanwhile, the Registrar of Societies does not want to re-arrange the two top posts in the MCA. In a dramatic turn of events - and fortune for Dr Chua Soi Lek - the ROS has retained the status quo with him as the Number Two.

It look like the party now has two deputy presidents pending a decision that is expected to come from party chief Ong Tee Keat.

Dr Chua said he received a letter from the ROS at 11.30am on Tuesday, confirming that he is still legally the MCA deputy president.

The letter was passed to him at Wisma MCA here.

He declined to comment on the status of Liow Tiong Lai, who was appointed his replacement in the aftermath of the infamous 10-10-10 extraordinary general meeting which voted not to reinstate Chua as the deputy president.

Liow Tiong Lai, who was made deputy president at the party's Central Committee meeting late last month, will have to move back to his VP post. Unless he wishes to openly defy the "unity plan" that Dr Chua and party President Ong Tee Keat had agreed upon in front of their boss Najib Razak, maintains that he is the rightful No 2, and hence prolong the crisis.