MCA president resigns Cabinet position
MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik has resigned his Cabinet post of Transport Minister, catching all his party colleagues by surprise and throwing the party into a state of shock and bewilderment.
The "resignation " was announced in an indirect manner via a press statement by the MCA presidential council which met for four hours at an emergency meeting today at the party headquarters at Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur.
The meeting which started this morning was initially chaired by Ling who caught everyone by surprise when he left halfway, leaving his deputy Lim Ah Lek, to chair the rest of the meeting which ended at about 4pm.
The press statement, signed by Lim Ah Lek, said the council meeting, attended by almost the whole MCA central committee, was distributed to the media at about 4.10pm.
It said that "the MCA Presidential Council, with the presence of the Central Committee members, felt shocked and saddened with the sudden unexpected announcement by the MCA National President Dr Ling Liong Lik of his decision to retire from his Cabinet Minister's post.
"The president informed the meeting that he felt that he has served as a Cabinet minister for a long time (14 years) and that this is now the right time for him to retire.
"The meeting unanimously and strongly appealed to him (Ling) to reconsider his decision as we felt that his services as a senior minister representing the Chinese community and the party are irreplaceable.
"We further expressed full confidence that under his leadership the present problems within the party will be fully and amicably resolved."
Despite questions from the press for more information, Lim brushed off their queries and advised them to "stick to the press statement".
Other MCA leaders who are in the Cabinet like Human Resources Minister Fong Chan Onn and Housing and Local Government Minister Ong Ka Ting left abruptly, and the press were not able to confirm when Ling had handed in his resignation letter to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. (This would have been standard procedure for any Cabinet member wishing to resign.)
The "resignation " was announced in an indirect manner via a press statement by the MCA presidential council which met for four hours at an emergency meeting today at the party headquarters at Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur.
The meeting which started this morning was initially chaired by Ling who caught everyone by surprise when he left halfway, leaving his deputy Lim Ah Lek, to chair the rest of the meeting which ended at about 4pm.
The press statement, signed by Lim Ah Lek, said the council meeting, attended by almost the whole MCA central committee, was distributed to the media at about 4.10pm.
It said that "the MCA Presidential Council, with the presence of the Central Committee members, felt shocked and saddened with the sudden unexpected announcement by the MCA National President Dr Ling Liong Lik of his decision to retire from his Cabinet Minister's post.
"The president informed the meeting that he felt that he has served as a Cabinet minister for a long time (14 years) and that this is now the right time for him to retire.
"The meeting unanimously and strongly appealed to him (Ling) to reconsider his decision as we felt that his services as a senior minister representing the Chinese community and the party are irreplaceable.
"We further expressed full confidence that under his leadership the present problems within the party will be fully and amicably resolved."
Despite questions from the press for more information, Lim brushed off their queries and advised them to "stick to the press statement".
Other MCA leaders who are in the Cabinet like Human Resources Minister Fong Chan Onn and Housing and Local Government Minister Ong Ka Ting left abruptly, and the press were not able to confirm when Ling had handed in his resignation letter to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. (This would have been standard procedure for any Cabinet member wishing to resign.)
The differences centred on the distribution of posts among the two leaders camps following the November general elections, in which Lim opted not to contest any parliament seat, saying he would soon "retire" from politics.
Lim's men such as MCA vice-president Chan Kong Choy, deputy finance minister, was bypassed a full minister's post, and lesser MCA members appointed as parliamentary secretary (such as Donald Lim Siang Chai at Transport Ministry) over seniors like Fu Ah Kiow, MP for Mentakab and aligned with Lim, who is still MCA Pahang chairman.
Despite MCA's improved performance vis-a-vis the BN dominant party Umno, the party was not "suitably rewarded with more Cabinet posts or State exco posts, leading to a lot of silent "protests" from party members but the unhappiness was well reported in the local Chinese newspapers in recent weeks.
Incidentally, Fu recently was given a similar post at the International Trade and Industry Ministry and the party was given two "state" appointments in Penang - a deputy speaker's post and chairmanship of Penang Port Commission - to placate MCA, the second senior-most BN component party, but it seemed these measures could not resolve the MCA's "internal" problems.
