Ex-health minister in Malaysia sacked over sex
tape
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - - The ethnic Chinese party in
Malaysia's ruling coalition has sacked a top leader over a
sex-video scandal, triggering infighting that could erode the
support of the minority community.
The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) decided overnight to
expel Chua Soi Lek, who was forced to quit as health minister last
year after being caught on tape having sex with an unidentified
woman in a hotel room.
Chua, 62, who is married with three children, was the deputy
president of the MCA, the second-largest party in the Barisan
Nasional coalition which rules the Muslim-majority nation.
"We did so with a heavy heart after giving much consideration to
the damage inflicted upon the party image brought about by his sex
scandal featured in the DVD," MCA president Ong Tee Keat said as he
announced the sacking.
The move comes as the Barisan Nasional attempts to regain
support from minority Chinese and Indians, who swung away from the
coalition in national elections last year.
Prime Minister Najib Razak called on the MCA to resolve its
problems quickly.
"We need to handle it so that its effect does not hurt Barisan
Nasional," he told reporters. "We want a strong MCA, no doubt about
it. We want an MCA that can represent the aspirations of the
Chinese community."
In the wake of the sex scandal, Chua resigned as the party's
number three but was voted back in by party members to the
number-two post last year.
That set off a running battle with Ong, whom Chua said felt
threatened by the support he had, and in recent months the sex
scandal was revived with new questions over the legality of the
acts depicted in the tape.
Chua has previously accused his political "enemies" of
orchestrating the release of the widely circulated video.
Chua said Thursday he was surprised by the decision to expel him
and urged MCA members to remove Ong, saying the party was "still
drifting without direction and purpose."
"Comrades who love the party will come to realise that it's time
to stand up and unite to save the party. Otherwise, we will soon
fade into oblivion," he said in a statement posted on his blog.
"I have confidence that MCA members will not let one man
self-destroy the party."
Political analyst James Chin said the sacking was a "wrong move"
that would throw Barisan into further disarray -- it is already
plagued by infighting within another component party that
represents Indians.
"The Chinese community will see that a deeply divided MCA can't
play the role of being their representatives in the government,"
said Chin, a political analyst at the Monash University campus in
Kuala Lumpur.