Businessman claimed he had created phantom members for MCA
(Sin Chew Daily) – He felt guilty when the MCA claimed to have more than a million of members but was supported only by 180,000 Chinese voters in the May 5 general election.
A local businessman recently claimed that he had helped the MCA to produce tens of thousands of phantom members for a living.
The businessman made the shocking confession on his Facebook and apologised to those who had unknowingly become the phantom members of the MCA in the 1990s.
In addition to explaining how the “phantom member manufacturer” worked, he also claimed that he did it under the instructions of his superior. He was required to submit a thousand or two of names every month but he had no idea how the name lists were distributed.
He told Sin Chew Daily that the purpose of creating phantom members were to consolidate the power of those who were in power.
However, he said that he did not know who was the mastermind behind it.
He said that Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik was the then MCA president, Tan Sri Lim Ah Lek was the deputy president, Tan Sri Ting Chew Peh was the secretary-general, while Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting, Tan Sri Dr Fong Chan Onn and Datuk Seri Chua Jui Meng were the vice-presidents and Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan was the national organising secretary.
He revealed that it happened after he left the press on June 1, 1995 and joined The People Insurance.
The now-defunct People’s Insurance was a subsidiary of the then listed Kuala Lumpur Industries Holdings (KLIH) and Selangor MCA Treasurer Tan Sri Teong Teck Leng was the executive chairman of KLIH.
“Under the big boss’ instruction, the Chief Executive Office of the People’s Insurance wanted me to to perform a mysterious task, namely to assist the MCA to recruit new members”, he wrote.
“With the help of a manager of the People’s Insurance, I initiated a ‘MCA phantom member manufacturer’ and created tens of thousands of phantom members for the MCA”, he added.
He felt guilty when the MCA claimed to have more than a million of members but was supported only by 180,000 Chinese voters in the May 5 general election.
He said that he must bear the historical responsibility of creating phantom members for the MCA.