Game over for Liow and gang
Published: Jan 30, 2010 3:51 AM | Updated: Jan 30, 2010 3:56 AM
It appears that hopes for fresh polls in MCA are dashed now that the all-powerful central committee (CC) has decided not to have any.
It's game over for those who had harboured high hopes for this route to be taken to resolve the leadership crisis in the 61-year-old party.
It appears that hopes for fresh polls in MCA are dashed now that the all-powerful central committee (CC) has decided not to have any.
It's game over for those who had harboured high hopes for this route to be taken to resolve the leadership crisis in the 61-year-old party.
Even though technically fresh polls still can be held if two thirds of the CC were to resign, the sentiment for this has somewhat been lost. It was very simple why the plan stalled: not many CC members were keen to relinquish their lofty positions.
Some party insiders held the view that all this while the faction headed by vice-president Liow Tiong Lai (centre in photo) knew that it would not have enough support to push for fresh polls but plodded on merely to give an impression that it had wide grassroots support.
The insiders observed that the first sign that Liow and 12 other CC members did not have the required support was when they decided to turn the MCA extraordinary general meeting (EGM) called by them on Nov 28 last year into a briefing session.
Liow's faction had declared it had more than 1,300 delegates, but a check by the party headquarters showed that only about 600 central delegates attended, very much short of the one-third of the delegates required to pass any resolution at an EGM of the party, the insiders said.
MCA has about 2,400 central delegates and one-third of them would mean about 800 delegates.
The second sign which showed that the group did not have the required numbers was when it agreed to the formation of the party's re-election committee headed by party deputy president Dr Chua Soi Lek (right) to look at the possibility of having fresh polls.
"By agreeing to that, it means that you are actually showing the card that you don't have the numbers. If you have the numbers, you would not agree to it (the committee) and would just go ahead with the EGM to pave the way for fresh polls with the adoption of the specific resolution," one of them said.
One of the CC members, who declined to be identified, said that during yesterday's CC meeting, Liow kept arguing that the party should fix the date for fresh polls.
But other CC members countered by saying that the party could not fix a date for fresh polls because the proponents for the move did not have the required number of members to do so, he disclosed.
"The truth is that the party re-election committee said there were not enough numbers of CC members agreeing to resign to push for fresh polls," said another CC member.
Direct presidential elections
A third CC member, Eng Hiap Hon, said the push for fresh polls had waned and that Liow's group should accept the re-election committee's findings tabled at yesterday's meeting that there was not enough quorum to call for fresh polls.
"This is numbers game. If you don't have the numbers, you can't have it, that's all."
His view was shared by another CC member, Ti Lian Ker, who said fresh polls were a non-issue from now on because the proponents had not been able to muster enough support.
"The issue is now closed. We can't allow the party to stand still for most of the time for the pre-condition for fresh polls to be fulfilled. The party needs to move on," he said.
Another CC member, Chong Itt Chew, claimed that he noticed that there was also a "split" among the group of the 13 CC members who originally wanted fresh polls as some of them indicated that they wanted to withdraw their undated resignation letters addressed earlier to party secretary-general Wong Foon Meng.
He said that the split surfaced when a call by one of the CC members who had pressed for fresh polls to stage a walk out en masse at yesterday's CC meeting did not receive strong support as only three out of 13 in the faction left the meeting.
Party veteran Yap Pian Hon said he believed that there was a possibility that Liow may eventually come back and support the party's leadership after his failed attempt to push for fresh polls.
"I see how he has joined hands with the president (Ong Tee Keat) when the party held a dialogue with Huazong (Federation of Chinese Associations, Malaysia) yesterday. Both of them shook hands," he said.
Yap said Ong had all this while said that "his door is always open to Liow".
For most of the party leaders and political analysts, the most significant outcome from the CC meeting was not much about the party's decision not to hold fresh polls but the appointment of new national organising secretary Simon Lim, who is also political secretary to Transport Minister Ong (left), and Tee Siew Keong, Chua's former political secretary as deputy national
organising secretary.
"The message is very clear that Ong wants to push for direct presidential elections and make the neccesary changes to the party constitution. He put the people he trusted most to hold key positions to get this proposal implemented. We can expect that the party election next year is likely to be based on this new system," he said.
- Bernama
It's game over for those who had harboured high hopes for this route to be taken to resolve the leadership crisis in the 61-year-old party.
Even though technically fresh polls still can be held if two thirds of the CC were to resign, the sentiment for this has somewhat been lost. It was very simple why the plan stalled: not many CC members were keen to relinquish their lofty positions.
Some party insiders held the view that all this while the faction headed by vice-president Liow Tiong Lai (centre in photo) knew that it would not have enough support to push for fresh polls but plodded on merely to give an impression that it had wide grassroots support.The insiders observed that the first sign that Liow and 12 other CC members did not have the required support was when they decided to turn the MCA extraordinary general meeting (EGM) called by them on Nov 28 last year into a briefing session.
Liow's faction had declared it had more than 1,300 delegates, but a check by the party headquarters showed that only about 600 central delegates attended, very much short of the one-third of the delegates required to pass any resolution at an EGM of the party, the insiders said.
MCA has about 2,400 central delegates and one-third of them would mean about 800 delegates.
The second sign which showed that the group did not have the required numbers was when it agreed to the formation of the party's re-election committee headed by party deputy president Dr Chua Soi Lek (right) to look at the possibility of having fresh polls."By agreeing to that, it means that you are actually showing the card that you don't have the numbers. If you have the numbers, you would not agree to it (the committee) and would just go ahead with the EGM to pave the way for fresh polls with the adoption of the specific resolution," one of them said.
One of the CC members, who declined to be identified, said that during yesterday's CC meeting, Liow kept arguing that the party should fix the date for fresh polls.
But other CC members countered by saying that the party could not fix a date for fresh polls because the proponents for the move did not have the required number of members to do so, he disclosed.
"The truth is that the party re-election committee said there were not enough numbers of CC members agreeing to resign to push for fresh polls," said another CC member.
Direct presidential elections
A third CC member, Eng Hiap Hon, said the push for fresh polls had waned and that Liow's group should accept the re-election committee's findings tabled at yesterday's meeting that there was not enough quorum to call for fresh polls.
"This is numbers game. If you don't have the numbers, you can't have it, that's all."
His view was shared by another CC member, Ti Lian Ker, who said fresh polls were a non-issue from now on because the proponents had not been able to muster enough support.
"The issue is now closed. We can't allow the party to stand still for most of the time for the pre-condition for fresh polls to be fulfilled. The party needs to move on," he said.
Another CC member, Chong Itt Chew, claimed that he noticed that there was also a "split" among the group of the 13 CC members who originally wanted fresh polls as some of them indicated that they wanted to withdraw their undated resignation letters addressed earlier to party secretary-general Wong Foon Meng.
He said that the split surfaced when a call by one of the CC members who had pressed for fresh polls to stage a walk out en masse at yesterday's CC meeting did not receive strong support as only three out of 13 in the faction left the meeting.
Party veteran Yap Pian Hon said he believed that there was a possibility that Liow may eventually come back and support the party's leadership after his failed attempt to push for fresh polls.
"I see how he has joined hands with the president (Ong Tee Keat) when the party held a dialogue with Huazong (Federation of Chinese Associations, Malaysia) yesterday. Both of them shook hands," he said.
Yap said Ong had all this while said that "his door is always open to Liow".
For most of the party leaders and political analysts, the most significant outcome from the CC meeting was not much about the party's decision not to hold fresh polls but the appointment of new national organising secretary Simon Lim, who is also political secretary to Transport Minister Ong (left), and Tee Siew Keong, Chua's former political secretary as deputy nationalorganising secretary.
"The message is very clear that Ong wants to push for direct presidential elections and make the neccesary changes to the party constitution. He put the people he trusted most to hold key positions to get this proposal implemented. We can expect that the party election next year is likely to be based on this new system," he said.
- Bernama
View Comments0