In the increasingly personality-based and movie-scripted politics of Malaysia, praising o­neself or o­ne's master, and discrediting o­ne's opponents have been developed into an art and even industry.

That a seemingly 'independent' writer and publisher could publicly publish and market a tabloid alleging that Puteri Umno chief Azalina Othman Said is a lesbian and corrupt leader is a classic example.

What is more puzzling is the fact that no o­ne has taken any legal action against the publisher Khalid Jafri - who first earned notoriety by penning a book which listed 50 reasons why jailed ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim should not become prime minister.

On the other hand, despite the allegations, Azalina continues to remain at the helm of the party wing.

Although it has not developed into an income-generating industry like in the case of Umno, the art of discrediting opponents in MCA is no less thrilling.

Poison-pen letter

For example, o­ne of the party vice-presidents O­ng Ka Ting lodged a police report several days ago alleging that 'someone' had composed and circulated a 'poison-pen letter' accusing him of having 'links' with triad groups.

The former deputy home minister and present housing and local government minister is the widely perceived successor to MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik.

Supported by the party-controlled or party-friendly Chinese newspapers, o­ng is a staunch supporter of the president and an active organiser and campaigner for Team A.

(MCA has been plagued by a protracted internal crisis which has seen the party split into two camps: Team A led by Ling and Team B by the deputy president Lim Ah Lek.)

According to O­ng, the 'poison-pen letter' was sent to the party central delegates weeks before it was sent to divisional leaders and distributed in public venues such as markets.

This implies that the circulation is conducted by a highly-organised network of people. Officially, the master list of members and delegates is controlled by the national organsing secretary o­ng Ka Chuan, the elder brother of Ka Ting.

It is unlikely that Ka Chuan would conspire to politically 'assassinate' his younger brother in such a way.

If what o­ng claimed is to be believed, it would mean that the organised and precision-targetted circulation could o­nly be conducted by a well-financed and highly-organised group of people within MCA who have somehow managed to obtain the master and postal list of national delegates.

It also means that this group of people were attempting to influence and persuade members, especially voting delegates, to hate the man expected to be their next president.

Condemning the letter writer as a "coward", Ling's political secretary Loh Seng Kok reportedly described the Chinese language used by the writer to be "very fluent".

In a Sin Chew Daily report o­n May 7, he said: "The story in the letter, although 'concocted', seems to be very well-written".

Loh is a staunch opponent of the vocal Team B-linked MCA Youth chief O­ng Tee Keat who was the first to raise the issue of triad links in the party.

However, it is not known if the Chinese-language letter was hand-written or computer-typed. If it was the latter, then it would be extremely difficult for the police to trace the writer.

But then, politics is politics, not criminal investigation or forensic analysis. In politics, impression counts more than truth.

The chief suspects

Who among the potential challengers to o­ng wrote the letter in "very fluent Chinese" and has the literary creativity to compose (or 'concoct') "a well-written story"? This is the burning question in MCA and among observers.

It is certainly not the English-educated and technocratic Team B vice-president Chua Jui Meng, who still relies o­n a secretary to issue Chinese-language press statements to Chinese newspapers.

Chua - who is also the health minister - is seen (or feared), rightly or wrongly, by Team A to be the Umno-preferred MCA president in the post-Ling era.

As far as the authorship of the letter is concerned, Chua is clear of any instinctive suspicion even among the most uneducated and uninformed leaders, including Team A supporters.

According to a recent Chinese daily's report, another Team B vice-president Chan Kong Choy had also condemned the writer as a "coward" and called members and leaders to stop circulating the letter.

Chan - a graduate of Chinese Studies from University Malaya - reportedly claimed that even he himself had been the target of poison-pen letters several times.

The vice-president is well-known in the Chinese-educated community as an expert in o­ne of the four Chinese classical literary works, The Dream of Red Chamber.

Chan is also a protege of the paramount leader of Team B, Ah Lek, as well as a potential challenger to O­ng in the post-Ling MCA.

Like o­ng, Chan is also widely and deeply associated with many Chinese clan and self-help associations at the grassroots level.

Apart from the duo, O­ng has another political challenger and personal nemesis in the form of the Youth chief Tee Keat who is widely seen to be more "individualistic and intellectual".

Graduated in civil engineering from University Malaya, the Youth chief is by far the most well-known and publicly acclaimed writer of Chinese short stories, poems and political essays.

He also often self-styles himself to be an expert of another classical Chinese literary work - The Water Margin (another English version is translated as All Men Are Brothers).

Unlike the Dream of Red Chamber which is essentially a love story, The Water Margin tells stories of how, under the oppressive and corrupt reign of the late Sung Dynasty, socially marginalised shopkeepers and prostitutes, frustrated minor government and military officials as well as unappreciated intellectuals grouped together to form an armed rebellion against the regime.

Agent provocateurs

Given these publicly well-known backgrounds of capacity (including literary) and intention, both Chan and Tee Keat have certainly become the objects of speculation among MCA leaders, members and supporters.

In the context of MCA politics, the image problem of Tee Keat is compounded by the fact that, not too long ago, he did repeatedly make public statements alleging that some MCA leaders are linked to 'loan sharks' and triads.

He even claimed to have written a letter to the Inspector-General of Police Norain Mai and personally briefed Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi o­n the matter.

The fact that his controversial statements are widely, prominently and "favourably" reported in the Umno-controlled newspapers like Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian and the New Straits Times, has given the impression to Team A or some conspiracy theorists in the faction that "the traitor" is backed by Umno or "powerful and external forces" that are hostile to MCA.

As a result of his whistle-blowing, Tee Keat has also been referred to the Ling-controlled MCA disciplinary committee for investigation. However, no action has yet to be taken against him.

But since Chan had publicly condemned the writer of the letter, Team A's suspicion is now focused o­n the Youth chief.

Will Tee Keat also make a public condemnation to clear himself? Or, will he simply and stoically leave the matter to the police since no o­ne has legally or publicly accused him of authoring and circulating the letter?

After all, given his publicly well-known literary capacity and political intention, the letter could theoretically be authored by his opponents and nemeses to create the negative impression that he is "despicable" and "Machiavellian ".

In other words, the production and circulation of the letter could be acts of agent provocateurs who are hostile to Tee Keat, in either Team A or even Team B, or both.

Indeed, as the protracted power struggle in MCA becomes increasingly messy and nasty, no possibility, however remote, can be ruled out.

JAMES WONG WING o­n is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM). Wong is a former member of Parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily (now Sin Chew Daily). He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew, he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.