While MCA Wanita chief Dr Ng Yen Yen today fended off reporters' questions about her past permanent resident status in Australia, her former business contact, Soh Chee Wen, who is facing two commercial fraud charges, held another press conference o­n their business collaborations.

At a press conference after launching a function at the Malaysia Tourism Centre as the culture, arts, and tourism deputy minister, Ng stressed that she had not misled party deputy president Lim Ah Lek in order to be appointed senator in 1993.

She said this when asked about Lim's accusation that she had lied about her Australian permanent resident status then.

"It was a privileged conversation between him and me. o­nly he and I know the truth of who was lying," she said, stopping short of refuting Lim's accusation.

She became a controversial figure after the media recently revealed that she was an Australian PR when she was appointed as a senator in 1993.

Following the expose, Lim claimed that when he was the Pahang MCA chairperson and scouting for senatorial candidates from the state, he had asked Ng if she was still a foreign PR, and she had allegedly replied "no".

Lim called Ng a "disgrace, indignity and embarrassment to the party by swearing in as a senator while holding an Australian PR status".

Gag order

At the press conference today, Ng reminded reporters about the 'gag order' issued by the Wanita central committee last week o­n the issue.

The pro-Ng committee had ruled that the issue was "closed" and that any wing leader or member who continue to question her credibility will be referred to the MCA disciplinary committee for further action.

"I don't intend to get into any verbal discussion (on Ah Lek's accusation) because there is a gag order. Please take out what I have just said, or else I am going to face disciplinary action.

"I am serious, everybody clear?" she said.

Despite the 'gag order' however, she continued to speak o­n the issue, saying that she did not revoke her PR status "unwillingly" as claimed by her critics.

"I would have definitely given up my PR even if I was not appointed as senator, because I had said that my PR was to facilitate my travel in and out (of the country to visit her children studying Australia).

"When my children has grown up, I would give up (my PR status).... All mothers would understand my situation," she said.

When asked, she said the call by Pahang PAS for her to resign was a "non-issue".

"I have clearly stated that I had revoked the PR status in 1995, even (de facto Law Minister) Dr Rais Yatim has said I have not breached any criminal code. I have not done anything wrong," she said.

Last week, Rais told malaysiakini that it was "morally untenable", though not legally wrong, for Ng to be a foreign PR while holding a public office whether "it was because of her children or business efficacy".

Documents obtained by malaysiakini had indicated that Ng was an Australian resident director of a New South Wales-based company, Indo Pacific Securities Limited, beginning April 1992.

The other directors of the stockbroking firm were two Australian residents and two Malaysians including Soh, who was o­ne of her business contacts.

Promoting investments

Meanwhile, at a separate press conference this afternoon, Soh shed more light o­n how Ng and he started their business collaboration in Australia.

"She approached me in 1991 and asked me to invest in Australia. At that time, she was actively promoting investment opportunities in Australia to many people including me.

"On her advice, I did a couple of investments. She was the o­ne who recommended that I acquire Indo Pacific and I did," he said.

He said he was aware that Ng, who was a local councillor in Pahang then, was an Australian PR.

As the Australian Corporation Law requires all public companies to have at least three directors, with the majority being Australian residents, Ng was appointed as a director "to fulfill the quota", he added.

He said he was also aware that Ng's children were studying in the country then but he could not remember seeing any o­ne of them.

Ng is aligned to party president Dr Ling Liong Sik's Team A in the deeply divided MCA. Team B is led by the deputy president Lim.