Troubled by the recent approval of 411 new MCA Youth branches, the wings suspended chief Ong Tee Keat warned that he will report the matter to the Barisan Nasional.

When contacted today, Ong said: It is detrimental to BN as it may affect the Chinese votes in the next general elections.

However, the controversy-dogged leader declined to say which BN leader he would speak to.

Ong said the new branches were approved without his knowledge and described the move as unprecedented.

I dont know when and how they did that, said Ong in reference to the three-member panel which was appointed to assume the powers of the Youth leadership last December.

The Youth leadership was suspended by the MCA central committee (CC) after it was convinced that Ong was responsible for premeditating the fracas at the Youths annual general assembly last year.

Of the 40 MCA CC members, 32 of them are known to be in Team A led by party president Dr Ling Liong Sik; while the others, including Ong, are in Team B led by Lings deputy Lim Ah Lek.

Ong had previously criticised Lings leadership and, on one occasion, demanded an apology from Ling who he accused of interfering in the Youth wings affairs.

Informed party sources said Ong is expected to brief BN Youth chief Hishamuddin Hussein about the matter.

After the leadership of MCA Youth were suspended last year, Hishamuddin, who is also the Umno Youth chief, had openly voiced his support for Ong.

Hishamuddin reportedly said then that he still recognised Ong as his good friend and as the MCA Youth chief.

Last Sunday, the three-member panel headed by Youth former national organising secretary Wang Choon Wing announced it had approved 411 out of 566 applications to establish MCA Youth branches after a thorough check-up and verification.

According to Wang, the panel rejected 155 applications due to several reasons — they were duplicated, already approved, de-registered, or lacking the stipulated 25 valid members.

No right

However, MCA assistant secretary-general Liow Tiong Lai told malaysiakini today that the panel had no right to approve the new branches.

They are ruining the mechanism and regulations of MCA Youth and our members are very upset about this, he said.

When asked, Liow said the approval of the new branches was to give advantage to certain quarters within the party in the forthcoming MCA elections expected to start in March.

This was because the new branches will lead to an increase of Youth delegates who will vote for their new leaders soon, he added.

There are currently over 2,000 Youth branches nationwide, which contributed to some 2,500 Youth delegates in the last party elections three years ago.

MCA Youth, just like its parent party, had witnessed a severe split among its leaders and members since MCA acquired two Chinese dailies last May.

Though the deal was eventually endorsed by a slim majority at an extraordinary general meeting last June, the Youth at its own EGM a day before passed a resolution to oppose the purchase.

The Youth EGM also saw the sacking of two leaders who were Ling loyalists. Both of them were later reinstated by the CC.

The party elections are likely to start at branch level in March, followed by division level in April, state in May and party in June.