MCA’s leadership dilemma

Party insiders are saying that about 30% of MCA members were ready to quit in the run-up to the next general election. So, is MCA imploding? They say there had been many cases of the leadership “bullying” those known to be unsupportive of Chua.

By Jackson Ng, Retired Journalist

THE MCA leadership’s lack of response to the resignation of about 1,000 MCA members led by the party’s former Penang and Johor Youth chiefs last week is telling.

All we got from the morally-tainted MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek was “we can recruit more, let them leave”.

Other leaders have remained relatively mum because they are unable to counter the reasons given by the two former youth chiefs who cited loss of confidence in the party leadership.

How do you defend your party and president who has lost all moral and integrity following his adulterous expose?

The problem with the party leadership following the 2010 three-corner presidential election is the fluke victory of Chua.

It shocked members that such an immoral and unacceptable man could still muster enough members, through whatever means, to win the presidency.

Already massively rejected by the Chinese community in the 2008 political tsunami, the election of a wife cheater had plunged the party into a bottomless abyss.

The majority of the Chinese community, ever so concerned about “face saving” and morality, clearly have written off the MCA.

Party insiders, after a detailed assessment of the party elections, have come to grips of their dilemma.

The party is led by a morally unworthy president who is ruling with just about 30% of the support of the party central delegates. One wonders the percentage of support for Chua in terms of the party membership.

The party election was triggered by a series of internal party political manoeuvrings by traitors and turncoats who, for their own self interests, chose to unseat the then president, Ong Tee Keat.

But the party central leaders had grossly miscalculated, landing with an embarrassing president who commands no respect from the Chinese community and women in particular.

During the leadership crisis and prior to the party election, the key players had misjudged or underestimated Tee Keat’s grassroots support.

The general talk then was that the lone ranger Tee Keat, as he was popularly tagged, would not be able to secure more than 200 votes and the camp led by former president Ong Ka Ting was confident of victory. Disaster struck when Ka Ting could only garner 833 votes – 68 votes short of Chua’s 901 delegates. Tee Keat was supported by 578 delegates.

What we see in the MCA today is status quo, with no single leader able to engineer more than 50% support to close ranks and solidify the party.

That is history, backed by facts.

Today, Chua and his cronies are unable to react strongly against those who resigned because they are unsure of the political manoeuvrings being subtly unleashed.

Should the leadership condemn the resignations as just isolated cases, it may trigger more mass resignations and embarrassments.

What is happening today in MCA is a real loss of confidence and frustration over Chua’s authoritarian administration and decisions based on nepotism and cronyism.

The two time bombs (resignations in Penang and Johor) have exploded but the mainstream media, especially MCA’s mouthpiece, The Star, has down played the news.

Party insiders are saying that about 30% of MCA members were ready to quit in the run-up to the next general election. So, is MCA imploding?

They say there had been many cases of the leadership “bullying” those known to be unsupportive of Chua.

One clear example is the case of veteran Malacca MCA Wanita chief Datuk Kang Sik Hor.

“Just because she was critical of Chua’s attack on assemblyman Betty Chew for serving her husband (Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng) more than her constituents in Malacca, disciplinary action was taken.

“She was referred to the MCA Disciplinary Board (DB). Imagine, for just a simple matter, the DB was used. It shows Chua and his cronies will not hesitate to use and abuse the DB to maintain an iron grip on the party,” said the insider.

Although the DB ultimately did not pursue the matter, Chua’s state cronies continued to pressure Kang to quit.

Clearly, Chua and his cronies cannot tolerate dissenting views and there is no room for alternative views.

However, that is not to say nothing is moving in the party. In the run-up to the next general election, there will yet be many political manoeuvrings and realignments based on self interests.

This will trigger even more time bombs to explode and let’s just sit and watch how MCA implodes.