MCA’s Ong Ka Ting showed that he had guts when he 'bit the bullet' and quit last year.

The one and only top leader of among all others in Barisan Nasional who quit with dignity and assumed personal responsibility for the great debacle in MCA's performance in the last general election. He earned admirable respect in doing so.

However, all the others hung on to their posts unashamedly including the supreme leader of Umno-led Barisan Nasional, who eventually was ousted after fierce opposition within his own party, including from his own predecessor.

(By the way, the other shameless thing was that despite being among the biggest losers in the general elections, the ‘Big Brother No 1' in BN seized the opportunity to 'grab' more ministerial and deputy ministerial posts (in percentage terms) such that even their own hugely victorious members in Sabah had to protest because they got 'peanuts' for their contribution.

So, on hindsight, was it a mistake for Ka Ting to quit in the very first place? Or should he now rejoin the MCA presidential race to try and fix the mess?

Or, is he posturing to win some influence and positions for his supporters, including brother Ong Ka Chuan, by playing 'bluff' as in a poker game (ie, he may actually have no real interest in making a comeback but only seeking to encourage his comrades to spin stories as if he would contest, so as to gain attention and force other presidential hopefuls to take notice and come to the negotiating table)?

In the final analysis, the bigger questions are these:

Who among the MCA presidential aspirants will Pakatan Rakyat hope to be elected, and hence augment Pakatan Rakyat’s chances in the next general election (or they couldn't care less)?

Who does Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak prefer the MCA president to be?

Most importantly, perhaps, it is for MCA members to do soul-searching and ask who among the presidential candidates has the vision, courage and character to bring the party forward based on their conscience and their conscience alone?

They have to ask themselves that if MCA leaders cannot even have trust among themselves and backstab each other within the same party, how will Umno-led Barisan Nasional component parties trust such leaders if they are elected into the MCA leadership?

Of course, the converse is equally true as there have been vicious titanic leadership struggles in Umno (until the party was deregistered once, not to mention the calling for its president to resign or subtly urged to resign, etc).

If leaders oust and cannot trust one another within their own party, how are other BN component parties going to trust each other's assurances, especially when words can be twisted or even denied that they were ever spoken?

There is a serious socio-political disease in the country where the trust level has deteriorated to the gutter level. If this continues, it will breed new generation of youths who may just emulate their ‘political parents'.

In conclusion, the rakyat still has one glorious chance to vote in men and women of integrity and competency who love humanity regardless of race, religion, culture or political persuasion, whether for party elections, state elections or general elections.