KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Malaysia's main ethnic Chinese political party has been jolted by claims that its leader set up a "snoop squad" to pry into the private affairs of his rivals within the party, including a former health minister who was caught in a video sex scandal.
The Malaysian Chinese Association party is the No. 2 group in Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's National Front governing coalition and represents the ethnic Chinese, who comprise a quarter of this predominantly ethnic Malay Muslim nation's 27 million people.
The party recently formed a panel to investigate allegations that its leader, Ong Ka Ting, employed spies to gather damaging personal evidence about party officials who might challenge his position.
Ong has denied the allegation, and several officials who testified before the party's investigation panel supported him. At least one official told the panel that such a "snoop squad" did exist, however.
Speculation has risen in recent weeks that the alleged snoop squad orchestrated a DVD scandal involving Chua Soi Lek, the party's former vice president. Chua stepped down as health minister in January after DVDs mysteriously surfaced and showed him having extramarital sex with a woman in a hotel room.
Chua has acknowledged appearing in the video and has said he believes it was politically motivated, but has not elaborated. He said, however, that the claims of a spy squad have hurt the party's efforts to win back the support of the substantial ethnic Chinese minority, after the party suffered staggering losses in March general elections.
"The Chinese keep losing confidence in the party," Chua told The Associated Press on Friday (23 May). "With such internal problems, there is a perception that the party is in a mess."
Chua said talk of the snoop squad has gained credence among many members, but he declined to divulge his own opinion on whether it existed until investigations are completed.
Ong said the spying claims were "baseless" lies intended to smear his reputation before party elections in October.
"I do not need to resort to unethical tactics to get rid of anybody," he said in a statement after the investigating panel interviewed him last week.
Ong has been under mounting pressure to defend his leadership after the party won only 15 parliamentary seats _ barely half of its previous 31 seats _ in recent national elections.
The losses were fueled by disillusionment among the party's supporters about its perceived failure to fight for the Chinese community's economic and religious rights amid growing concerns about government policies that some say are racially discriminatory in favor of the majority Malays.
In the elections the National Front suffered its worst performance in 51 years of rule, retaining power with only a simple majority in Parliament.
SEAN YOONG
Associated Press
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