There is no act of treachery or meanness of which a political party is not capable; for in politics there is no honour.
– Benjamin Disraeli, ex-British Prime Minister
Once Barisan Nasional’s second-in-command and arguably, the dominant and strongest Chinese party in the country for over four decades, the MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) is, sadly, now a pale shadow of its former self.
The 14th general election in 2018 is one episode which MCA would want to be buried and forgotten. BN lost federal power for the first time after it was soundly thrashed by Pakatan Harapan (PH).
MCA lost all but one of its parliamentary seats and was relegated to the opposition. It was a nightmare for the party as the Chinese switched their support to the DAP and PKR.
It has been five years since the GE14 debacle. In GE15 last November, MCA managed to add another parliamentary seat. With two seats in a 222-seat Parliament, what do you expect to be called but a mosquito party.
MCA is now with the unity government as a backbencher with BN supporting PH. But it is known that the party is feeling very uneasy and uncomfortable, particularly with its long-time sworn adversary, DAP.
The question is: Will MCA rise again? Logically, when you are down, the only direction you can go is up. So, if MCA wins four parliamentary seats in GE16 in 2027, it can be said that the party is on the rise.
But is that enough to satiate the hunger and ambition of this once proud representative of Malaysian Chinese? I doubt it.
I think that for any party to rebound from its misfortunes, it must first have capable, strong, selfless and charismatic leaders. Do the current MCA leaders live up to such expectations?
Unfortunately, I don’t think so. But I have written favourably of Wee Ka Siong, the incumbent MCA president, in the past.
To me, Wee is relatively young in his 50’s, well educated and is fluent in several languages. But his critics have expressed their disappointment in his performance as a minister.
How I wish Wee has the attributes and leadership qualities of one of his predecessors – Tan Sri Dr Chua Soi Lek.
Of all the MCA presidents over the past three decades, I think that Dr Chua was the most capable but not necessarily the most successful.
He managed to provide some semblance of leadership to the party, something which was sadly lacking during the tenures of his two predecessors – Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting and Tan Sri Ong Tee Keat.
Dr Chua was also a planner and under his leadership, the party has a new organisation structure in which the grassroots and cadres, particularly the youths, were given recognition and roles in the party.
He was also credited for being outspoken and courageous in his dealings with Barisan Nasional’s big brother, Umno, during his presidency from March 2010 to Dec 2013.
For example, during the BN Convention in 2010, Dr Chua emphasised that there should be no seniority in the coalition and all BN component parties were equal partners.
He had also urged all BN leaders to stop using sensitive terms like “ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy)”, “penumpang” and “pendatang”.
Under Dr Chua, MCA had also made a courageous decision in 2011 that party leaders will not accept government posts if the party performed worse than the 2008 general election.
It is on record that no other political party has made such an impactful decision in Malaysian history.
Unfortunately, Dr Chua’s brilliant career as a politician was marred by an incident involving his personal indiscretion. Although capable, Dr Chua also did not have the luxury of time as he decided to step down as party president following MCA’s disastrous outing in the 2013 election.
The MCA has just held it general assembly over the weekend in Kuala Lumpur.
I am disappointed that Wee, unlike Dr Chua in the past, did not unveil any action plan for the party moving forward. He also did not mention about possible prominent roles for the youths in the party.
When Wee mentioned in his speech that “MCA must join hands with insightful individuals from other BN parties to reform BN and retrieve its essence”, I thought he should be more concerned with reforming his own party first rather than worrying about others in the BN.
Perhaps Wee and other party leaders really deserved an earful from one delegate over the party’s state of decline.
It was reported that Tan Kai Yong, the party’s Puchong division member, lamented that MCA’s habit of evading the issues concerning the Chinese community has caused the Chinese-based party to lose support to the point that it is now at death’s door.
Tan highlighted that MCA has not only lost the support of the Chinese community but also failed to win votes from other races.
Overall, the MCA event over the weekend did not achieve anything much for the revival of the party and there was no feeling of a sense of urgency to do so at all.
Will MCA rise again from the ashes? Not with the current crop of leaders, in my opinion. The party needs a serious overhaul, beginning with a new leadership.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
