The presence of seven glamorous-looking young women at the MCA Youth annual general meeting (AGM) last Saturday turned heads of delegates and made the front pages of several newspapers the next day.

mca youth agm 011011 audience 01 After being cued by the AGM chairperson, the seven led a group of women who strutted into the hall single-file, smiling for the cameras before being ushered to their seats.

The move was part of a symbolic prelude to MCA Youth opening its doors to women members next year.

Although seven young women - two of them in mini-skirts - were at ease with the clicking of press cameras, the lack of any interviews and the overall choreographed nature of the event sparked questions as to whether they were there to serve as ‘eye candy'.

Photographs of the group have been heavily circulated online, particularly on Facebook , leading to some to ask if the women were hired as part of an elaborate publicity stunt.

Beliawanis: They are real members

Contacted yesterday, Beliawanis MCA chief Tee Hooi Ling shot down claims that the women were not bona fide party members.

"That is not true, they are all members, I think some of them were from the Subang division. I don't know how people can come up with such allegations," Tee lamented.

She said it was "very disgusting" of netizens to question the women's membership just because they thought the women were pretty.

According to her, the Beliawanis members were there on MCA Youth's invitation, in anticipation of the wing being officially opened to female members next year.

"The AGM is only for central delegates, and the Beliawanis, who are from a number of divisions, were invited to the AGM as observers," she said. However, she was unclear which divisions were invited.

Tee said the Beliawanis, whose pictures were splashed on the country's major newspapers, were "quite new" members, adding that MCA Youth could start recruiting female members even before the policy became official.

Beliawanis is a sub-division of Wanita MCA, specifically for women aged 18 to 35.