A senior MCA leader today vehemently rebutted the allegations raised in the joint statement by the two mediators over the aborted succession talks for the party's top two posts.

Wong Mook Leong, who has been an MCA central committee member for 24 years, issued an open letter to party treasurer William Chek, arguing that Chek has not told the truth in the joint statement.

In the joint statement, MCA deputy secretary-general Dr Sak Cheng Lum and Chek, who mediated the talks, claimed that a senior party member had called one of them and suggested that they sign a document to state that party leader Dr Ling Liong Sik would retire before 2002.

The statement added that the senior party member, whose identity was not revealed, had proposed that the document be signed without Ling's knowledge.

Last Friday, MCA deputy president Lim Ah Lek denied that he had pressured Ling during the succession talks to resign next year as alleged by certain factions in the party.

He added that it was Ling who himself suggested that he would step down, but both of them agreed that it would not be put in writing for fear of making the party leader a lame-duck president.

The succession talks sought to resolve the party's future leadership amicably.

Lim, who has expressed his intention to resign time and again from the deputy leader post, is seeking for a guarantee that his protege, vice-president Chan Kong Choy, be appointed in his place. However, this will put Chan within striking distance for the top leadership should Ling step down next year, a prospect feared by Ling's men.

Supporters of Ling, led by his protege Ong Ka Ting, also a party vice-president, had accused Lim of pressuring the president to relinquish his post.

Evidence

Meanwhile, matters took a turn for the worse when Sak and Chek, who mediated the succession talks between the leaders, issued a joint statement recently to say that Lim wanted the party president's resignation date in writing.

In the open letter, Wong - a close ally of Lim - conceded that he did call Chek twice on Feb 10, and suggested to him to prepare a supplementary document signed by the mediators stating that the president would step down in or before 2002.

"I suggested that both witnesses keep a copy of the supplementary document and give another copy to (Lim) Ah Lek, so that in the event that both witnesses come under pressure for whatsoever reason, the desire of the president can still be carried out," he said.

"After further thought, I realised that there were flaws in this preliminary concept, as there is no way to prevent the leakage of the document, thus rendering Ling a lame-duck president.

"Hence, on the same day, I called you (Chek) again to suggest some modification and that it is sufficient for the mediators hold the document," he said, adding that in the event of a dispute, the document could be the evidence of what actually transpired.

Concept not feasible

Wong stressed that what was claimed by the joint statement, that the document must be "looked through" by Lim is Chek's own concoction.

"I strongly deny making such a suggestion in our private discussions," he said.

Conversely, he said he did mention if the mediators thought the concept was not feasible, they were at liberty to discard it as this was only a preliminary discussion.

"Hence, it may not be necessary to tell the president so as to avoid any misunderstanding," he said, elaborating that he had suggested to Chek to abandon the idea after he was informed they could not agree upon the concept.

Wong warned Chek, who was once his close friend, that it would be better for him to inspect his records of the events before making an open rebuttal or denial.

"Otherwise, any attempt to rebut or clarify my contention would bring about a great surprise to you," he said.