I am shocked by MCA President Dr Ling Liong Sik's response to a question on MCA's stand on the Penang Outer Ring Road (Porr).

It was reported that "On MCA's stand on the Porr, Ling said 'Porr is not a federal project and people like me don't have any clue about what it is. It is a Penang outer ring road, not a Federal Territory or Johor outer ring roadas far as we are concerned, we don't make a stand on things we don't know anything about" (Indefinite suspension for errant MCA duo).

But that's precisely what the duo had done. They did not make a stand on things that their president didn't know anything about. So why should they be punished from standpoint of honesty for abstaining to vote?

Am I to take that they have done wrong — because they did not adhere to the MCA ethic of supporting blindly whatever the Barisan Nasional leadership (Umno) says?

The MCA president did not have a clue of what Porr was notwithstanding he is the transport minister. However he preferred to consult the prime minister — "'That's my normal practice on almost all major issues. I always consult the PM because he is the father of Barisan Nasional. When he speaks from the top, you will have a wider view of things,' said Ling."

The duo should take this cue on political survival: follow the BN whatever the people's interest may be.

Mind you, I don't think MCA's Team B under deputy president Lim Ah Lek will do better. They will also vie for the PM's patronage. No one can ever aspire to be MCA president without that. In the final analysis, it is positions that count — not the people's interests.

Indefinite suspension may not be understood by Penang chief minister Dr Koh Tsu Koon (Penang CM puzzled by MCA's indefinite suspension) but it is plain how it is an expedient way to massage Umno's ego and yet assuage the ruffled feathers of MCA's constituencies at the same time. In short, balancing conflicting demands.

To the former, indefinite suspension saves the face of Umno bigwigs who have come out publicly to demand the sacking of the duo. For indefinite suspension — if it were really indefinite — is almost equivalent to sacking. Yet to its own constituency, indefinite suspension can mean temporary suspension to be lifted once the 'heat' is off and the matter forgotten.

This need to do the "balancing act" seems to characterise MCA on every major controversial issue.

Take for example teaching Mathematics and Science in English. Because Umno supreme council dictates it, so it must be done — outside the curriculum on Saturdays, etc. and yet at the same time to its traditional Chinese educationist supporters, it is telling them another story — that the curriculum is not affected.

Compromise, compromise and compromise — all ingenuity is directed at how to balance the conflicting interests.

This is all very pathetic. Where is the principle?

I rest my case.