As the prospect of another general election intensifies, war drums are rumbling on the horizon. Politics is best selling news these days.

To understand the nuances and under-currents in Chinese politics in Malaysia, you really have to read the Chinese dailies, bearing in mind the political ownership and the larger loyalty of these massive media empires. For balance and antidote, you must then read the alternative net portals, the www.merdekarview.com and the Chinese version of www.malaysiakini.com.

The front page of the Oriental Daily on July 29 carried a front page report that the MCA president Ong Ka Ting may (and may not) contest in the Bukit Bintang constituency in the coming general election. Like a bold move in a tight chess game, this gambit must have plucked the heartstring of many-a-politician.

Since then, the Chinese press and the Internet have been flooded with endless comments and analysis on this revelation. The front page story has not been denied or confirmed by the MCA, although there is no shortage of response from both sides of the political divide, treating the suggestion as a kind of interesting possibility.

A prominent commentator and a known MCA member opined that the news could have been leaked deliberately by the think-tank buried deep within the inner sanctum of the MCA headquarters. It is a tactical move targeted at testing public opinion on the issue, like throwing a pebble into a placid still pool of water. It is also probably designed to redirect public attention back to MCA offensive in their media war with their arch nemesis, the DAP.

In recent weeks, DAP has been launching a series of media blitz, announcing with great fanfare the entry of a number of bright young and prominent citizens into their fold as possible party candidates in the coming lection. Their latest prize is Jeff Ooi, reputed by some to be the godfather of Malaysian blogsphere. (Would Kim Kuek be next, or is he not a DAP member already?)

The story, if confirmed, is indeed a piece of major news. Since it has not been confirmed, whether a major national daily should make mere speculation into its exclusive headline scoop is a matter subject to reflection and debate. But the Oriental Daily is struggling to survive against the Sin Chiew media juggernaut in their own media war. One can understand why every tiny morsel and every juicy bit of roadside story must be squeezed into a scoop.

About Bukit Bintang

In any case, for those familiar with the perennial rivalry between MCA and DAP, the story that Ong Ka Ting may move from his safe but mixed seat somewhere in Johore to the overwhelmingly Chinese constituency of Bukit Bintang makes a lot of sense.

Bukit Bintang sits at the heart of the nation's capital. It is a small area of high population concentration, embracing many of the old streets and back lanes that make up the traditional KL "Chinatown". Ever since independence, it has always been a DAP stronghold. In the 60s right up to 1990 when he left the DAP, Lee Lam Thye dubbed the "Godfather of Hawkers" - won the seat consistently with monstrous majorities, sometimes well over 10,000! After he left the DAP, Bukit Bintang was ably defended by Wee Choo Kiong, until a court case gave it briefly to MCA, and shortly afterwards, Wee too left the DAP. The current DAP rep there is Fong Kui Lun, the party treasurer.

Like all their strongholds elsewhere in the country, die-hard support for the DAP in Bukit Bintang has been waning in recent decades for various reasons. In the last general election in 2003, fighting a little-known lady candidate from the MCA, Fong Kui Lun scrapped through with a razor thin margin of over 300 votes, after many recounts!

If the exalted MCA president decides to descend into the Lion's Den, marshalling the kind of election machinery and financial resources that only he, as the president of the cash rich party can, then all kinds of flashing red lights and screaming alarms must go off for the besieged DAP in this one of their last few perceived strongholds.

Such a bold move will also work wonders in marshalling the morale of the MCA nationwide. It would be leadership by example, the top-most MCA leader abandoning his safe seat for the minefield of Bukit Bintang, where the DAP has enjoyed a stranglehold for what must seem to the MCA like eternity. Granted that the DAP has declined somewhat in KL, but even a sinking ship will have a ton of nails to be salvaged, as the Chinese says.

The move will be a brilliant stroke of political strategy. It will solve many problems for the MCA and its president in one fell swoop. Ong Ka Ting should really give this proposal long and hard consideration, if he is worth his salt.

The MCA Bukit Bintang division has been embroiled in internal discord for quite a number of years now. The hard working division chief, Dr Lee Chong Meng, has been whittling away support from the DAP. He confided in me once that he had spent over a million of his own money in his task. But his party members in Bukit Bintang are restive. There has been a string of vague allegations against him from his rank and file. The disagreement over his candidature in the coming election may just hand the seat over to the DAP on a silver platter. If Ong Ka Ting decides to contest in the Bukit Bintang constituency, everybody in the local MCA will have to rally behind the party supreme leader.

Ka Ting's legitimacy

The stake is even higher for Ong Ka Ting.

Ong came to the presidency of the MCA, to the surprise of many observers, because of a compromise reached to resolve the acrimonious fight between Team A of the last president Dr Ling Liong Sik, and Team B led by Lim Ah Lek. .

Ong's problem is one of legitimacy in his capacity as the leader representing the interest of some five or six million Malaysian Chinese. His has an image problem, lacking the kind of flamboyant extrovert charisma that people associate with top political leaders like the MIC president Samy Vellu, DAP's Lim Kit Siang, or Gerakan's Dr Lim Keng Yaik.

His dead-pan seriousness is typical of a school teacher, which Ong was, before he was plunged into his role as Ling Liong Sik's protg, his heir apparent, and finally as MCA president-elect.

Ong's public persona can be described as nondescript at best. He is a pale shadow of his predecessors, his greatest claim to fame being the forgettable slogan for "life-long learning". (What do you expect from a teacher turned politician?)

But if and when Ong decides to contest in Bukit Bintang, he would be on course for a re-engineering of his public image. He would be seen as a man of courage and principle, ready to take the risk of losing in an opposition stronghold, proving the point that a top MCA leader pursues public office and power not for the sake of self interest, but for the sake of increasing the strength and meaning of Chinese participation in government within the BN framework of power sharing.

KL is also the nerve centre of the nation. Once Ong shows up in Bukit Bintang, the national attention would fall upon this battle. In media capital alone, his race against the DAP will take on a national symbolic meaning extending far beyond the constituency. His stature within the hearts of the Chinese electorate nationwide will grow by many notches. Everywhere, the MCA will use this contest as a major publicity offensive against the DAP, and may even take the wind out of the sail of the DAP election campaign.

Already, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has announced that he is prepared to face off against Ong Ka Ting in Bukit Bintang if he is recommended by their central executive committee. This may be just another piece of pre-election posturing. But if the scenario becomes a reality eventually, the clash of the titans from the two mainstream parties among Chinese voters will be a mother of all battles watched by the whole nation. The outcome will be anxiously anticipated by Chinese citizens everywhere.

For many years now, the DAP has been taunting the MCA, with endless public challenges for MCA top guns to contest in Chinese-majority urban constituencies. The opposition party claims that, if the MCA leaders continue to win on the strength of Umno and MIC support in constituencies with a significant Malay and Indian presence, then the MCA cannot be said to represent the aspirations of the Chinese. Worse still, the MCA will have to kowtow to Umno forever, because their electoral success depends so much upon Umno domination of Malay politics throughout the Peninsula.

By going into Bukit Bintang, Ong Ka Ting will end once and for all this talk of MCA being cowardly self-promoting opportunistic politicians. A battle to settle the issue of who will genuinely represent Malaysian Chinese will then begin.

To be continued next week