Tee Keat: Go ahead, remove my portrait

Former MCA president Ong Tee Keat said he would not mind it if his portrait is removed from party headquarters.

He also said his legacy to the party is not for current president Dr Chua Soi Lek to decide.

In a stinging reference to Chua's sex video controversy, Ong said this is because he does not want his portrait to hang next to that of a "moral corrupt".

"He (has) all the powers in his hands (to remove) my portrait from the MCA headquarters if he wishes to. After all, it could hardly be enviable or enjoyable to have one's portrait (to be hung) side-by-side (with that of) a moral corrupt," he said in a statement yesterday.

He was responding to Chua's verbal attack on him at the party's general assembly yesterday. Chua had described Ong as a "footnote" in the history of MCA.

It is the tradition in MCA to put up portraits of its presidents.

Loss of faith

Ong also responded to Chua's call to him to resign if he no longer believes in the party.

"True, I have lost my faith in his leadership but that should in no way be misconstrued as losing my faith in the party I chose to join in 1981."

As for resigning as Pandan MP, Ong said his mandate had come from constituents during the March 2008 general election and not from Chua.

"It is my duty to remind him that no president before him had ever openly ordered a member to leave the party simply because of losing faith in one's leadership as MCA has never been the president's private property.

"Neither should the party be run like a mafia purely at the whims and fancies of the helmsman, if at all he has an iota of respect for democracy."

Chua yesterday broke his silence, following fierce criticism of his leadership by Ong who had described the party as heading for "irrelevance".

Ong stood by his statement, saying that this is the "general public's perception" of Chua's leadership.