REALLY? Phantoms a thing of the past - Soi Lek

PETALING JAYA : MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek urged party veterans not to raise the issue of phantom members to further their personal agendas, Sin Chew Daily reported today.

He said phantom members were a thing of the past and no longer an issue.

Chua told reporters this at a dinner with Perak division leaders in Ipoh when asked to comment on the issue, which had become headline news in the Chinese press over the weekend following a claim by a businessman that he helped the party to "create" tens of thousands of phantom members in the 90s.

On Saturday, former vice-president Datuk Fu Ah Kiow told Sin Chew that the party indeed had a large number of phantom members at the turn of the century.

Chua said the phantom members issue, which plagued the party during the leadership tussles between Tan Koon Swan and Datuk Dr Neo Yee Pan in the 80s and later between Team A and Team B in 2001, was being played up again.

He said since Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting took over the party's helm at the end of the Team A-Team B tussle, the party had been very stringent in accepting new members
"Every potential new member must have the recommendation of a branch, a witness, and submit a photocopy of his personal identification.

Every application is then vetted by a division, state liaison committee and the central committee.

Meanwhile, Negri Sembilan MCA Youth chief Datuk Seri Lim Chin Fui said he will lodge a report with the party headquarters as well as the police over businessman Vincent Ng's claim on Facebook that he had headed one of the "factories" to mass-produce fictitious members for MCA.

Contacted by Sin Chew for comment, Ng clarified that what he meant by phantom members were in fact real persons who had become MCA members without their knowledge.

He said he created the members with photocopies of identity cards of people signing up for insurance policies and direct-selling programmes, registering for marriages through MCA or taking part in other activities organised by the party.

- thesundaily.my