The Straits Times of Singapore 22nd June 2001

By Joceline Tan

IN KUALA LUMPUR

THE Malaysian Chinese Association's (MCA) extraordinary general meeting on Sunday may be party president Datuk Seri Dr Ling Liong Sik's own D-Day.

The EGM is not only expected to resolve the controversy over the Nanyang Press deal, but it may also decide the fate of the party president.

A vote supporting the purchase will give the 58-year-old leader an extended lease of life, but a disapproving vote, it is said, will spell the beginning of the end for him.

The battle lines are clearly etched and even with the slight media advantage to the party president and his men, it is obvious that support for the group critical of the deal is substantial and gathering momentum by the day.

Vice-president Datuk Chan Kong Choy, one of the key figures in the opposing group, told The Straits Times: 'Everywhere we've gone, the support has been fantastic. This Nanyang Press deal is a very unpopular deal.'

The opposing group, labelled the 'Gang of Eight' by Dr Ling, has been on a nationwide roadshow to gather support for their cause.

Dr Ling has also been travelling around the country tirelessly to explain his side of the story - that the venture was purely business and that it had the majority sanction of the party's top decision-making body.

However, he was dealt a serious moral blow when the so-called 'Gang of Eight' pulled off a huge and enthusiastic crowd at its Johor stop recently.

Dr Ling is chairman of the Johor MCA, where his parliamentary constituency of Labis is located.

Party secretary-general Datuk Dr Ting Chew Peh told The Straits Times: 'The EGM will be an important watershed. It will translate the squabbling that has been going on the past month into a party decision which we hope everyone will accept and respect.

'My duty is to see the EGM run properly, with both sides given the chance to air their views.'

Dr Ling has pledged to respect the decision of the EGM '100 per cent' and this, according to a staunch supporter, 'shows he is quite confident that the EGM outcome will favour him'.

'Dissent on the ground is not necessarily the same thing as sentiment in the party,' the supporter added.

The EGM will be a fiery affair if the recent state conventions of the Youth and Women's wings in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur are any indication.

Several leaders associated with the president were heckled and jeered at.

More significantly, both wings, by an overwhelming majority of more than 75 per cent, passed resolutions urging that the deal be aborted. Another ominous resolution passed by both wings called for the party constitution to be amended to limit the president to a maximum of three terms.

Dr Ling is now into his fifth term and enjoys the dubious distinction of being the longest serving president in the history of the MCA.Following the 1999 general election, the party leadership has been divided over the allocation of Cabinet posts.

But it took the Nanyang Press deal to bring the split to a full-blown power struggle on a scale not seen since the power tussle of 1984. In that sense, Dr Ling has come full circle. In the struggle of 1984, he was one of the 'Gang of 14' who went against the incumbent Datuk Neo Yee Pan.