Two key leaders were sacked during the MCA Youth annual general meeting (AGM) today following an eventful morning session which saw fistfights, flying chairs and a bomb scare at the Flamingo Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

An emergency resolution, backed by 730 delegates was passed to dismiss Youth secretary-general Yew Teong Look and deputy Youth chief Loh Seng Kok.

The duo are aligned to party president Dr Ling Liong Sik's faction. Loh is Ling's political secretary.

Nineteen delegates opposed the resolution while 13 abstained. Despite a high turnout of 1,187 members this morning, only about 800 remained to vote on the resolutions.

Yew left the meeting with some 300 delegates and 25 other central committee members before the resolutions were passed.

This was after several delegates, believed to be Yew's supporters, failed in their bid to adjourn the AGM and dismiss the Speaker with their emergency motions.

The AGM later ruled that all decisions and motions made today were conclusive, effectively closing the door for any judicial review in the future.

Nanyang deal

On June 23, the MCA Youth wing had passed a no-confidence vote against Yew for not acting on an order from Youth chief Ong Tee Keat to call for an emergency general meeting (EGM) on MCA's takeover of Nanyang Press Holdings, the publisher of two Chinese dailies.

The Chinese community strongly objected to the deal believing that the dailies' editorial independence would be compromised. The controversial deal led to a split within the party.

On July 12, Yew called for an emergency Youth Central Committee (CC) meeting which ruled that the Youth EGM, which went ahead on June 23, was illegal as it contravened the party's constitution.

During today's meeting, Youth delegates backed two resolutions to reaffirm the validity of the June 23 EGM and the no-confidence vote against Yew. It was agreed that the emergency CC meeting called by Yew was invalid.

Two other resolutions which were endorsed almost unanimously were the proposals to limit the tenure of the party president, Youth chief and Wanita chief posts to a maximum of three terms or nine years.

Apart from this, the AGM also resolved to oppose the formation of an Islamic state in the country, to urge the Education Ministry to practise transparent university admissions and increase the number of university places and to secure a government fund for the setting up of Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar).

Other resolutions passed included urging the government to tackle social ills with stern actions and strict laws, to provide more incentives and rewards to attract foreign investors and to promote the enrolment of Chinese youth in the public sector.

Bomb hoax

Earlier in the morning, delegates were asked to leave the conference hall of the hotel while a police bomb squad combed the premises following a bomb scare.

Police were called in the second time a short while later, but this time to restore order after tempers flared and chairs, accompanied by punches, were thrown by the delegates following allegations of bias on the part of the assembly's Speaker Lim Hong Sang.