Fifteen MCA leaders were present during the show of force at Liow Tiong Lai's press conference which hit out at Ong Tee Keat on Oct 27. Here's a run down of why they became the hardcore ‘Third Force’. Let's start with the Three Stooges:

1. Liow Tiong Lai - he's a heartbeat away from becoming MCA president. If he succeeds in toppling Ong, he becomes the MCA president. In corporate circles, this is called a ‘backdoor listing’. And he's promised to reward a whole lot of people when the mutiny succeeds.

2. Wee Ka Siong - he wants to be transport minister. He has a Ph.D in transport from UTM and in terms of the hierarchy, he's next in line. Three of the four vice-presidents are already ministers and the fourth is a state assembly person and an exco member in Johor.

3. Chew Mei Fun - the Hainanese who turned against her fellow Hainanese president Ong was promised the Tourism Minister's job. What does a person who lost massively in PJ Utara care about Ong? She's gonna be made minister, man, woo-hoo!

Ong Ka Ting’s Camp:

The former MCA president still has unfinished business in supporting his own elder brother Ka Chuan as president. He wants to topple Ong towards this end. Top on the list of his supporters is actually a woman - Chew Mei Fun (see above). Ka Ting's men are:

4. Wee Jeck Seng - The deputy minister of youth and sports was former political secretary to Ka Ting when the latter was the housing and local government minister. Wee was one of the three- member ‘snoop squad’ which was tasked with trying to secretly film ka Ting's political rivals in compromising positions. The others are Liow Tiong Lai and Tee Ann Chuan

5. Ho Kok Chung - Ong Ka Ting plucked the former UM lecturer from nowhere and got him to stand in the the 2008 general election. When it dawned upon Ka Ting that he didn't have enough members of Parliament to fill Cabinet posts, he made Kok Chung the deputy higher education minister.

For this, Kok Chung is eternally grateful to Ka Ting for being able to leave the ivory tower for the world of raw power.

6. Yu Chok Tow - What can we say about this woman? Ka Ting wanted to promote her as deputy minister. Too bad, she lost terribly to a candidate from the DAP for the Seremban parliamentary seat during the 2008 general election.

Chan Kong Choy’s Camp:

The former MCA deputy president who quit under a cloud for his involvement in the Port Klang Free Zone scandal has been jumpy since the day Ong opened up the files on the ‘Mother of All Corruption Scandals’ in Malaysia.

Chan actually had good relations with Ong but when the former saw a golden opportunity to get rid of the erratic Ong for Liow, he couldn't resist it. Liow, the Bentong MP, is considered a Bentong-born Chan Kong Choy protege. And Liow is much easier to control than Ong.

7. Wyman Yoo Wei How - He served as Chan’s political secretary, then later as Liow's political secretary. Ong took heavy blows from his own hardcore supporters when he insisted Wyman be made the MCA National Organising Secretary. But Wyman's loyalty is with his ex-bosses, not the party president.

8. Hoh Khai Mun - The Pahang MCA chairperson would die for Chan and they both go back a long way. This Pahang exco member also hails from Bentong, the same town as Chan.

9. Chai Kim Sen - He has been close to Chan since the days they were both in MCA Youth. Chai has a got a Datukship. A businessman, he gets loads contracts. Ong thought that Chai Kim Sen was a good man and appointed him into the MCA central committee. And what did Chai Kim Sen do? Stab Ong in the back, what else?

10. Gan Hong Su - This man's links with Chan are fairly limited but is the drinking buddy of Wyman. Let's just say they both have an exquisite taste in the finer things in life. Gan, too, was appointed by Ong into the CC only to be backstabbed later by him.

11. Wong Siong Hwee - This Kelantan senator has been a close confidate of Chan since the latter’s heyday.

The Neither-Here-Nor-There Camp:

12, Liew Yuen Keong - This man can't make up his mind which side to support. During the EGM, he was the Ong's chief scrutineer. A few days later, he swung to the Dark Side. During the Team A - Team B days, his famous quote was that his ‘body is in Team B, soul in Team A’.

13. Gan Tian Loo - His father, veteran MCA leader Gan Boon Leong may be an ex-Mr Asia for bodybuilding. But Gan Jr is not his father. He told a hardcore MCA supporter that he showed up at the press conference because he was harassed into doing so.

14. Lee Wei Kiat - He garnered the highest number of votes in the central committee during the 2008 MCA election. And you know what they say about those people with high votes - they are not popular, they just ‘play’ both sides.

Ong made him a salaried special officer at the Transport Ministry and made him official MCA spokesperson and a director in Wisma MCA Sdn Bhd. And he repays the gratitude by turning against Ong.

The Cover-up Camp:

15. Chor Chee Heung - In the 2005 MCA election, he fought for a vice-president’s post and lost. In 2008, he downgraded himself and fought for a central committee post - and lost again.

Ong gave him a lifeline and appointed him to the central committee. He has only one reason to bite the hand that feed him.

Deputy Finance Minister Chor, neither a hardcore Ka Ting nor Kong Choy man, is the only serving government leader implicated in the Pricewaterhousecoopers report on the PKFZ.

If Ong is gone, so it will be too with the PKFZ issue.