In a dramatic twist, the 28 MCA women who wrote a letter to party Wanita leader Dr Ng Yen Yen insinuating that Serdang member of Parliament Yap Pian Hon was involved in vice activities, had apologised to the MP.

Yap told malaysiakini today that the women, who are supposedly Serdang MCA members, had faxed the letter to the Chinese press, in response to Yap's advertisements in the papers calling on them to come forward. Yap said he had obtained a copy of the letter from the press.

He said the letter, which bore the same names as the previous letter and did not carry any signature, claimed that due to Yap's 'adequate' action in responding to the problem, their families have been reconciled.

According to Yap, the women denied their action was "politically motivated" and clarified that they had sent the letter to Ng as she was the MCA Wanita chief. Besides the apology, they also called for the matter to be closed.

Ng is currently overseas.

Yap questioned why there was no signature attached to the letter if it was a genuine case.

He also queried why the letter was not sent to Family Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil since it was a women's issue.

Fast response

"This latest development raises many questions as to the authenticity of the letter. The response to our advertisement was surprisingly fast," Yap said.

"Also, it is amazing that the families of the 28 women can reconcile so quickly when the problem was deemed very serious in the first place," he quipped.

Last week, the letter bearing the names of 28 MCA women claimed that their familes were in shambles as their husbands and sons frequented brothels in Serdang and did not come home often.

Yap claimed the letter was a 'political agenda to wallop me' and Team B, led by deputy president Lim Ah Lek, who has been at logger heads with Team A led by president Ling Liong Sik since last year.

The impasse between the two teams heightened during the party's take over of two Chinese dailies Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press purportedly engineered by leaders from Team A.

Police report

In response to the letter, Yap published an advertisement in the Chinese newspapers asking the 28 to officially lodge a complaint at the party's branch office within a week.

If nothing happened, said Yap, he would consider lodging a police report on the matter.

Meanwhile, Yap said Serdang MCA would hold a meeting soon to engage several lawyers to look into the case, which he claimed has "shamed the women of Serdang".

Yap revealed that following the advertisement, a women had contacted him saying that she was baffled that her name had appeared in the letter.

"The woman was very angry and embarrassed. She said she did not sign anything and was shocked to see her name in the press. Her husband also chided her for unnecessarily highlighting the problem when he is innocent" he said.

"If such things can happen, I feel the group who did this really has a political motive and they have also abused the freedom of the press," he added.

Backing for rep's efforts

Yesterday, Yap met with 30 local non-governmental organisations, represented by 70-odd people to discuss the issue, and came up with resolutions to resolve the constituency's vice activities.

The four resolutions adopted include criticising the police, Immigration Department and the Subang Jaya Municipal Council for failing to effectively enforce regulations to curb vice activities.

In the resolutions, Serdang constituents were told to immediately report vice activities to relevant authorities. Residents have also been urged to remain united and cooperate to rid the constituency of vice activities.

The NGO members also expressed their support for Yap and Seri Kembangan state assembly representative Liew Yuen Keong in their efforts to clean up vice activities in Serdang.