Sex, videotape and the underworld
Sim Kwang YangPublished: Jul 30, 2009 6:33 AM | Updated: Jul 30, 2009 6:39 AM
A clash of the titans seems to be shaping up as the verbal scuffle between MCA president Ong Tee Kiat and his estranged deputy, Chua Soi Lek, continues to pick up steam on the airwaves.
In a sense, Ong has taken over the helm in the MCA at the worst of times. He has inherited one of the oldest premier political parties that had been so battered by the political tsunami last year that its very relevance in Malaysian politics is now in doubt.
The entire MCA membership must be suffering a pandemic of low morale up and down the entire Malayan peninsula. Large chunks of their former electoral real estate has been overrun and lost to the Pakatan Rakyat coalition, especially the DAP. Their positions of official influence and sources of patronage in five state governments have been wiped out.
A clash of the titans seems to be shaping up as the verbal scuffle between MCA president Ong Tee Kiat and his estranged deputy, Chua Soi Lek, continues to pick up steam on the airwaves.
In a sense, Ong has taken over the helm in the MCA at the worst of times. He has inherited one of the oldest premier political parties that had been so battered by the political tsunami last year that its very relevance in Malaysian politics is now in doubt.
The entire MCA membership must be suffering a pandemic of low morale up and down the entire Malayan peninsula. Large chunks of their former electoral real estate has been overrun and lost to the Pakatan Rakyat coalition, especially the DAP. Their positions of official influence and sources of patronage in five state governments have been wiped out.
The onus of salvaging the party wreckage after the political perfect storm and restoring it to its former glory must now lie squarely on Ong's shoulders.
On the surface, Ong looks like the perfect choice for the job. An engineer by training, he used to write Chinese poetry in his youth. His literacy with Chinese literature has endeared him to the Chinese intelligentsia and journalists. He is also known to be a politician with very strong principles, and he is reputed to be clean.
But apparently, Ong has never enjoyed a cordial working relationship with his deputy Chua having failed to appoint him to a cabinet portfolio after his elevation to the number two position in the party.
Ong has many times in the past mumbled about how political leaders should have a high standard in personal morality, obliquely referring to Chua's sex video scandal about a year ago.
For some strange reasons, the sex video has resurfaced again recently. The MCA disciplinary committee has sent Chua a show-cause letter, and the hearing has been fixed on Aug 4.
Unlike the last time, when Chua resigned from his ministerial office meekly, he is now all ruffled up, prepared to take the fight to its bitter end. This is ominous for the MCA for Chua must still enjoy widespread grassroots support, or else he would not be elected deputy president, even after the humiliating debacle of the sex video scandal.
Ong sees conspiracy to dislodge him
In recent days, Ong has been using various public appearances to highlight a joint conspiracy from within and outside the MCA to remove him from office as both MCA president and transport minister. He has even alleged that forces from the underworld are threatening his personal safety, following his handling of the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.
His tactic is simple and effective. He makes himself a victim to draw sympathy from the party and the public for his next course of action. Already, there are rumours and speculations, especially in the Chinese-language Internet news portals, that an emergency special delegates' convention may be called soon to topple Ong's leadership.
Ong's problem has been complicated by DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang, who has been hounding him every step of the way on the PKFZ scandal. As others who had been targets of Lim would know, it is a very uncomfortable position to be so hounded by him. Lim does have probably the sharpest verbal teeth in Malaysia.
MCA has always been plagued by very disruptive factional fights in the past. In my time, the worst one I have personally witnessed was the protracted and ugly tug-of-war between Tan Koon Swan and Neo Yee Pan in the 1980s. It involved quite a few emergency special delegates' convention.
Tan eventually won, but had to serve his sentence in a Singapore jail, paving the way for the long rein of Ling Liong Sik as party boss.
The brewing of another crisis in the MCA is also a reflection of the immature political culture practised in our young system of party politics.
We all understand that internal discord and power struggle for the top posts is a problem that exists in all political parties in Malaysia. It is more visible in the media for some parties than others.
All these political parties do have their respective constitution that makes provisions for the resolution of internal differences and for democratic elections of party officials at all levels. But while rules are rules, they may not be applied fairly in a country where political goal posts are often moved to suit individual desires - as a rule.
It is also an unwritten rule that in the event of an internal party dispute, the winner will take all the spoils of war, and the loser is exiled to the fringe of party influence, there to lick his wounds forever. Attempts at reconciling the differences and accommodating opponents within the party after the fact have been rare.
A vicious fight to the death
Much as I am critical of Dr Mahathir Mohamad's leadership of the country during his time, I have to concede to him his success in accepting Semangat 46 leaders and members into the Umno fold.
In all other instances, leaders and members of the same political parties who call one another "comrades" would go at one another's throats in more vicious fashion than they would treat members of their political foes across the broad divide of power. A fight for power between political factions would always be a vicious fight to the death, leaving no room later for reconciliation whatsoever.
Let us contrast this with the recent presidential race in the United States. During the long and bitter contest between Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton in the Democrats' primaries and caucuses, they have always appeared civil to each other in public debates.
Though there were veiled personal attacks against one another, these two presidential candidates never degenerated into the kind of demonisation that is the standard practice in Malaysia.
When Obama won his party nomination, Clinton conceded her defeat graciously and later joined ranks by urging all her supporters to give their full support to Obama. When Obama was finally elected president, he nominated Clinton to the all-important post of secretary of state, making her the senior-most member of his cabinet.
There is an old Chinese proverb that says "the stomach of a prime minister is so vast that you can row a boat in it". The true measure of a politician's maturity and greatness even must be his ability to think and behave nobly and honourably in public, and his capacity to absorb all the hurt and humiliation of all the opposition and criticism flung his way from all direction daily.
In the case of Ong versus Chua, both have yet to show this ethical commitment to gentlemanly politics. Like leaders of all political parties, they are truly Malaysian after all!
SIM KWANG YANG can be reached at kenyalang578@hotmail.com.
In a sense, Ong has taken over the helm in the MCA at the worst of times. He has inherited one of the oldest premier political parties that had been so battered by the political tsunami last year that its very relevance in Malaysian politics is now in doubt.
The entire MCA membership must be suffering a pandemic of low morale up and down the entire Malayan peninsula. Large chunks of their former electoral real estate has been overrun and lost to the Pakatan Rakyat coalition, especially the DAP. Their positions of official influence and sources of patronage in five state governments have been wiped out.
The onus of salvaging the party wreckage after the political perfect storm and restoring it to its former glory must now lie squarely on Ong's shoulders.
On the surface, Ong looks like the perfect choice for the job. An engineer by training, he used to write Chinese poetry in his youth. His literacy with Chinese literature has endeared him to the Chinese intelligentsia and journalists. He is also known to be a politician with very strong principles, and he is reputed to be clean.But apparently, Ong has never enjoyed a cordial working relationship with his deputy Chua having failed to appoint him to a cabinet portfolio after his elevation to the number two position in the party.
Ong has many times in the past mumbled about how political leaders should have a high standard in personal morality, obliquely referring to Chua's sex video scandal about a year ago.
For some strange reasons, the sex video has resurfaced again recently. The MCA disciplinary committee has sent Chua a show-cause letter, and the hearing has been fixed on Aug 4.
Unlike the last time, when Chua resigned from his ministerial office meekly, he is now all ruffled up, prepared to take the fight to its bitter end. This is ominous for the MCA for Chua must still enjoy widespread grassroots support, or else he would not be elected deputy president, even after the humiliating debacle of the sex video scandal.
Ong sees conspiracy to dislodge him
In recent days, Ong has been using various public appearances to highlight a joint conspiracy from within and outside the MCA to remove him from office as both MCA president and transport minister. He has even alleged that forces from the underworld are threatening his personal safety, following his handling of the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.
His tactic is simple and effective. He makes himself a victim to draw sympathy from the party and the public for his next course of action. Already, there are rumours and speculations, especially in the Chinese-language Internet news portals, that an emergency special delegates' convention may be called soon to topple Ong's leadership.
Ong's problem has been complicated by DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang, who has been hounding him every step of the way on the PKFZ scandal. As others who had been targets of Lim would know, it is a very uncomfortable position to be so hounded by him. Lim does have probably the sharpest verbal teeth in Malaysia.MCA has always been plagued by very disruptive factional fights in the past. In my time, the worst one I have personally witnessed was the protracted and ugly tug-of-war between Tan Koon Swan and Neo Yee Pan in the 1980s. It involved quite a few emergency special delegates' convention.
Tan eventually won, but had to serve his sentence in a Singapore jail, paving the way for the long rein of Ling Liong Sik as party boss.
The brewing of another crisis in the MCA is also a reflection of the immature political culture practised in our young system of party politics.
We all understand that internal discord and power struggle for the top posts is a problem that exists in all political parties in Malaysia. It is more visible in the media for some parties than others.
All these political parties do have their respective constitution that makes provisions for the resolution of internal differences and for democratic elections of party officials at all levels. But while rules are rules, they may not be applied fairly in a country where political goal posts are often moved to suit individual desires - as a rule.
It is also an unwritten rule that in the event of an internal party dispute, the winner will take all the spoils of war, and the loser is exiled to the fringe of party influence, there to lick his wounds forever. Attempts at reconciling the differences and accommodating opponents within the party after the fact have been rare.
A vicious fight to the death
Much as I am critical of Dr Mahathir Mohamad's leadership of the country during his time, I have to concede to him his success in accepting Semangat 46 leaders and members into the Umno fold.
In all other instances, leaders and members of the same political parties who call one another "comrades" would go at one another's throats in more vicious fashion than they would treat members of their political foes across the broad divide of power. A fight for power between political factions would always be a vicious fight to the death, leaving no room later for reconciliation whatsoever.
Let us contrast this with the recent presidential race in the United States. During the long and bitter contest between Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton in the Democrats' primaries and caucuses, they have always appeared civil to each other in public debates.
Though there were veiled personal attacks against one another, these two presidential candidates never degenerated into the kind of demonisation that is the standard practice in Malaysia.
When Obama won his party nomination, Clinton conceded her defeat graciously and later joined ranks by urging all her supporters to give their full support to Obama. When Obama was finally elected president, he nominated Clinton to the all-important post of secretary of state, making her the senior-most member of his cabinet.
There is an old Chinese proverb that says "the stomach of a prime minister is so vast that you can row a boat in it". The true measure of a politician's maturity and greatness even must be his ability to think and behave nobly and honourably in public, and his capacity to absorb all the hurt and humiliation of all the opposition and criticism flung his way from all direction daily.In the case of Ong versus Chua, both have yet to show this ethical commitment to gentlemanly politics. Like leaders of all political parties, they are truly Malaysian after all!
SIM KWANG YANG can be reached at kenyalang578@hotmail.com.
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