By LIM SUE GOAN
Translated by DOMINIC LOH
Sin Chew Daily
Umno and MCA are representatives of Malay and Chinese politics in this country. While Umno has its share of problems, the Malay race is one that still knows how to care and help their own people. Not our Chinese leaders.
Chinese Malaysians are a clever lot, but they are only good if they go solo. When a group of Chinese people come together, factionalization and infightings are a norm.
The biggest difference between Umno and MCA is that Umno leaders know how to make some changes for the sake of the party, for example the direct party elections that allow the party to move in tandem of the times. By contrast, MCA continues to adhere stubbornly to the easily manipulated central delegate voting system it has practiced for decades because its leaders are more concerned about their own interests and powers than anything else.
The upcoming MCA elections will be one classical example of power play, especially its president Chua Soi Lek, the power play supremo who has the party well in his grips.
After the humiliating defeat in GE13, Chua should by right bear the full responsibility being the party president, but whether he would go or stay is now up to him himself to decide. He is having everything in his hands, from his control of central delegates in divisional polls to an EGM to censure his deputy Liow Tiong Lai on October 20.
Before he architectured the Oct 20 EGM, I believe Chua already had in mind of dragging Liow along with him if he were to bow out. So he designed a motion to censure Liow, making him morally unfit to run for presidency. At the same time, the president named 18 young leaders who could take over, including Wee Ka Siong, with the objective of disintegrating the Liow-Wee alliance.
If he successfully incites the supporters of Liow and Wee, even if the duo were to form a pair to run for the party's top two posts in December, Chua's men are expected to reap the benefit and take the helm.
As a matter of fact, the infightings within MCA over the years have been an epitome of the power struggle within the party, the Ong Tee Keat and Chua Soi Lek rift being a classical instance.
On August 27, 2009, under the auspices of Ong Tee Keat, Chua Soi Lek was sacked by the party's presidential council citing the immoral sex CD issue. Chua fought back and successfully passed a resolution to call for Ong's resignation on October 10 the same year. Chua's party membership and committee member status were reinstated but not his deputy presidency.
October 22, Ong, Chua and Liow announced they had achieved a "grand unity solution." In the March 28, 2010 party elections, Chua defeated Ong Tee Keat and Ong Ka Ting in a three-cornered fight, attesting to the fact that Chua was indeed the supremo in power play.
From here we can see that MCA leaders care nothing about principles. They are only concerned about their own benefits. They could set aside a resolution achieved at the October 10 EGM, and a foe could turn a close ally in a split second.
As such, we shouldn't be overly worried about the latest infightings because another peace solution could be well on the way any minute. And if the farce has gone way too far off, Umno leaders can always put their hands in it and bring the whole thing to a rest before long.
Malaysians have lost their faith in MCA for another reason: people have previously speculated that MCA would very soon make its way back to the Cabinet, and indeed one of the motions at the October 20 EGM will be to nullify the party's earlier decision of not joining the Cabinet.
What are the reasons for joining the Cabinet? If they still care about their individual interests more, in the end they will not be able to fight for a more equitable system, in which case it wouldn't matter any more whether MCA gets into the Cabinet or not as it will not help the Chinese community.
While MCA leaders enjoy creating the farce, many people have actually put it off their minds. If the party fails to renew itself, its days are numbered.
Seeing what is happening to MCA, Chinese politics in Malaysia is indeed a sad thing. Chinese politicians have the wits to only manipulate the powers in their hands, not to struggle for the well-being of the entire community.
If is a sad reality that Chinese Malaysians are being sidelined after GE13, but unfortunately Chinese parties remain untrustworthy as ever while Chinese associations are divided. There will be no way out for the Chinese community in Malaysia unless our leaders put an immediate stop to all the nonsense and work together to hammer things out and get the problems solved. - mysinchew.com
I have a few questions.
Does 'Chinese parties, Chinese politicians and our leaders' - as highlighted in the article above - apply to DAP as well?
This circus of MCA holding AGMs and EGMs to decide which Govt position/appointments they want and which they don't.... is it not a big joke?
You think the Prime Minister, the Mentris Besar and the Chief Ministers are running sundry shops for you to prepare a shopping list of your wants?
Is Soi Lek not the biggest burden for MCA today? How do you expect the party to renew itself when Soi Lek thinks he should win the Oscar on MCA's ticket?
MCA must certainly renew itself but the biggest fear is that those desperate politicians with loads of personal baggage may push MCA to be more DAP than DAP to cover their weaknesses.
That may not be the kind of renewal the Chinese community is looking forward to.
Actually the Chinese community is beginning to show signs of lethargy to DAP's politics of hatred. People are tired of DAP's blame game. Ordinary folks have had enough of we against them kind of divisive politics. Politics of race and region is another issue which the ordinary Chinese are tired of. Even the Chinese fear those born again Christians among them.
DAP's in-fighting is just waiting to implode into something bigger. Kit Siang & son cannot possibly continue to blame Umno and BN as their own members have grown tired of the dictatorship in DAP.
If MCA members are smart enough, they could sail this wind of change. MCA must rejuvenate, renew and re-invent the party. MCA must stand up and be the voice of reason for Malaysians.
Most importantly, MCA must remain moderate and not try to be more chauvinist and divisive than those dictators and their ilk in the DAP.
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