OPINION In a recent interview with Malaysiakini, suspended Deputy MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek brought up an interesting point – how he will handle Umno if he were the leader of the MCA.
“There is more than one way to skin a cat. Similarly, there is more than one way for MCA to deal with Umno”, Chua said philosophically.
According to him, MCA president Ong Tee Keat prefers a more confrontational approach when dealing with Umno, the ‘big brother’ of Barisan Nasional.
Chua stressed his emphasis was towards garnering support for BN because that is the common platform which MCA candidates stand on during elections.
For the coalition to thrive, MCA must then forge strong ties within the BN coalition, including Umno, said Chua.
By now, most of us know what is going on in the MCA.
Sex scandal difficult to erase
The ‘Triple 10’ (10am on the 10th day of the 10th month) extraordinary general meeting will be a ‘winner takes all’ battle for either Ong or Chua. Both had declared that it would be the end of their political career should they not survive the vote.
It has been speculated that Chua is unhappy at being sidelined by the party while Ong must have felt it improper to put up a person tainted by immoral behaviour for public office.
Indeed, Chua’s ‘porn star’ tag is something that is unlikely to go away, ever.
People still remember DP Vijandran’s sex videos even when the incident happened some 20 years ago. And Malaysians will not forget Bill Clinton’s indiscretion with Monica Lewinsky even though that has nothing to do with us. But Chua did better than Clinton. He was brave enough to own up immediately while Clinton lied through his teeth until he was cornered.
But what Chua brought up - the way to handle Umno - is a subject worth a further look at.
Looking at the current crop of presidents of BN component parties, I can safely conclude that MIC supremo Samy Vellu and MCA president Ong Tee Keat would be able to stand as tall as and be at par with Najib Abdul Razak, the prime minister and Umno president. I’m afraid I cannot say that of Gerakan’s Dr Koh Tsu Koon though. (Pity Dr Lim Keng Yaik is no longer at Gerakan's helm. I doubt anyone in Umno had dared to bully Keng Yaik in the past.)
Why? Samy was already a senior Cabinet member when Najib was just a ‘baby minister’. Say what you like about Samy. He has the guts to stand up to Umno, ‘big brother’ or not! Najib would have a lot of quiet respect for the veteran MIC president too.
Ong Tee Keat’s no-nonsense approach is one that would stand out in his dealings with other BN partners, Umno included.
Chua is probably right. There are many ways to build a relationship with Umno leaders. How he is different from Ong here is that the MCA president is considered a very tough nut to crack and is unlikely to budge once he has made up his mind on something.
It is perhaps true what Chua said about him being gung-ho in his language with Umno leaders. Then, it could also be true that Ong knows too well how Umno will treat him if he is seen as a weak, vulnerable personality. So he has to be tough and act tough, even with ‘big brother’ Umno.
When MCA was bullied
Let me relate two incidents which reached my ears over how Umno had treated its Number Two partner, the MCA in years gone by. They could be true or unreal but I have no reason to think that they were made-up stories.
Many years ago, I was quite friendly with a deputy Umno minister. The good man had since passed on.
He was a confidante of then Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. And we all know how revered (and feared) Mahathir was when he was in office.
In one of our night caps in his house many years ago, my friend talked about how MCA could easily be bullied by Umno.
“Whenever we wanted to call up MCA leaders, they would come crawling to us at any time,” he had sniggered, as if to indicate how subservient the MCA leaders were. Well, we know who the
MCA president was at that time.
Then recently, I heard this story about the Team A-Team B tussle in the MCA in the early 2000’s.
Towards reaching a resolution in 2003, Dr Mahathir called Dr Ling Liong Sik and Lim Ah Lek into his office.
With the two men in front of him, Mahathir just pointed at them and asked that both of them stepped down as MCA president and deputy president. The story went that Ling and Lim just nodded.
Then Mahathir asked whom they wanted as their replacements. Ling said “Ong Ka Ting” and Lim mentioned “Chan Kong Choy”.
So Ka Ting and Kong Choy as the new president and deputy president it will be.
Next, Mahathir called Ka Ting and Kong Choy to his office. Pointing at Ong, he said “you will be the new MCA president”. At Chan, he ordered, “you will be the new deputy president”.
When this was related to me, I was not totally surprised. This was how powerful Mahathir and Umno were. They could easily made mincemeat of MCA.
It might not have happened exactly the way it was related, but I believe it was along similar fashion.
Feel safer with Ong's approach
But to be fair to Mahathir, he was probably fed-up of the long-running tussle in the MCA then and had wanted to close the chapter quickly.
Umno had changed its leadership since then. So have many of the BN component parties. I suppose different leaders have their own ways of doing things. But I have to say, “just don’t bully your smaller ‘siblings’".
Leaders of the smaller BN component parties, including those from Sabah and Sarawak, should just respect but never fear Umno or their leaders. Umno will not dare act as the ‘big brother’ if they know that others are not easily cowed by them.
And honestly, between Ong Tee Keat and Chua Soi Lek, I think I will feel safer with Ong’s no-nonsense approach with Umno if I were a MCA member.
But then I’m not. So if there are MCA leaders or members who choose to remain subservient to Umno, I say ‘good luck’ to them. Perhaps I should add ‘good riddance’ too!
(This article was first published in The Borneo Post and is reproduced here with permission. The writer has reworked some paragraphs as updates. -Paul Sir)
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