I refer to the Malaysiakini report EGM talks fail, courtroom battle looks imminent .

In the last month, Malaysians have been appalled to watch the infighting within the MCA deteriorate to such an extent that there seems little hope the party can ever piece itself back together again.

Each camp has professed that they are merely acting with the party’s best interests at heart. But as the rhetoric becomes increasingly divisive and toxic, and as the charges leveled by some camps become more accusatory and personal, it is hard to believe that they are thinking about anyone but themselves anymore.

What can be done to end this embarrassing political spectacle? How can MCA move forward in a manner that would convince everyone – especially the Chinese community it says it speaks for and the Barisan Nasional coalition partners it must work with – that it has well and truly put this debacle behind it?

In pushing for his unity plan, MCA president Ong Tee Keat has said that there should not be any preoccupation with quota, and has called for common sense to prevail.

Ong has accused other senior members of MCA’s central committee of disloyalty, but whether these accusations are true or not are frankly irrelevant.

Here are the facts: Ong was handed a no-confidence vote at the MCA’s extraordinary general meeting on Oct 10. He does not have the support of even half the party.

That same common sense he has called for demands that he step down as party president so that further deliberations on the MCA’s currently precarious fate can be held on a clean slate.