So it would seem that the Nanyang Press Holdings takeover continues to hang like an albatross around the neck of MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik.

The Malaysian public is once again reminded of the divisions that this issue has created within MCA in a most dramatic fashion at the recent MCA Youth AGM - two leaders ousted, a fistfight, chair-throwing, a bomb scare (for goodness sake!) that fortunately turned out to be false.

Appeals for unity seem to have gone unheeded, statements proclaiming the same appear to have been premature or, well, untrue.

It just wouldn't go away, will it? MCA now looks very weak. MCA's bargaining power within Barisan Nasional will be eroded as long as it is not united and so long as it has lost grassroots support.