The launching ceremony for the first stage of the New Era College's (NEC) new campus was called off at the eleventh hour without reason, arousing suspicion of political intervention.

Reliable sources told malaysiakini today that the ceremony was scheduled to take place on Tuesday at Wisma Hong Leong in Kuala Lumpur.

However, when guests arrived they were shocked to discover that the event, supposed be officiated by Human Resource Minister Fong Chan Onn, had been cancelled.

The sources said that NEC is viewed as a threat by MCA which is in the process of setting up it's own tertiary institution, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar).

"Therefore, MCA is trying to prevent NEC from raising funds from the Chinese community for its new campus because they (MCA) need money for Utar as well," claimed the sources.

"It is possible that MCA may not want the NEC campaign to be highlighted in the press, especially when NEC has a solid expansion plan when compared to MCA's Utar," added the sources.

Struck out

NEC was founded by the Chinese education movement, Dong Jiao Zong in 1998 and is presently situated in Kajang. The college operates on public donations, mainly from the Chinese community.

NEC is planning to shift to Sepang five years from now and is in the process of securing donations for the construction of the new campus, estimated to cost around RM20million.

The Hong Leong group has donated RM3million for the new campus.

Meanwhile in Penang, sources have claimed that certain MCA politicians are "ruining" the NEC fund-raising campaign.

"They boycotted the launching ceremony of the Penang NEC fund-raising committee led by state exco member Toh Kin Woon and struck out NEC from the list of beneficiaries of a Chinese cultural event," claimed the sources.