I refer to the Malaysiakini report Enter the Tee Keat dynasty .

It is already three weeks since MCA delegates last met to elect their new leadership and by now they have realised that unity, rebuilding and re-invention are just things to talk about and not something to put into real practice. Ong Tee Keat, the newly-crowned president, has shown that he is the emperor of the new dynasty.

Not only did he uproot the Ong brothers’ (Ka Ting and Ka Chuan) remaining influence, he also single -handedly sidelined his deputy - Chua Soi Lek. Never before has a new MCA president acted so confrontational, so factional in nature against the wishes of delegates who elected the new team, just about three weeks ago.

Back to history. There are, of course, instances whereby the the MCA president had acted to sideline the deputy president in many ways but this only happens after many years of them being a team. Lee San Choon sidelined Richard Hoo while Ling Liong Sik marginalised his deputies Lee Kim Sai and Lim Ah Lek.

They initially acted to unite but when things became worss, supporters of both camps quickly realigned themselvesl. In the case of Tee Keat, he has set his mind from the very first day to sideline supporters of an opposing camp without giving due thought to party unity and rebuilding.

Also, the fact that Lee San Choon had done it or Ling Liong Sik had repeated it, does not mean that the new MCA president has the right to do it again. This is a mischievious attempt to monopolise power from day one, thereby triggering the risk of further splits down the road.

When queried by reporters on why his deputy was not appointed to head any state liaison committee, Tee Kiat, the new emperor, quickly retorted this is was his prerogative to appoint anybody and further added that he need not explain the decision. It is not wrong to assume that the president has the power to appoint state chiefs but it is entirely flawed to suggest that ‘the president need not explain to anybody’.

Being a mechanical enginner by training, the new president has unfortunately confused himself on what the word ‘right’ and ‘power’ actually mean. He has equated the meaning of ‘power entrusted by the delegates’ with that of ‘his own natural right to live on as an individual’. In a democratic society, the individual has the natural right to live on, the right to freedom of assembly, freedom of speech and the right to defend himself when accused of any allegation.

In the case of power granted by the MCA’s constitution, the president must be accountable for his actions and inactions simply because this power is not a natural right of the president but one entrusted to him by the 1,429 delegates or about 60% of the total delegates who have casted their votes.

Looking at Tee Kiat before and after the appointment, the ‘emperor mindset’ has again crept into MCA leadership. Some people lament that the Chinese civilisation has gone through a prolonged period of an ‘emperor culture’ so much so that Chinese leaders pretend to be verbally democratic but are practically dictatorial by default.

The so-called new MCA values, as seen in the latest line-up of the bureau and state chiefs, are definitely not new at all. The party has gone through so much factional fighting before this. Tee Kiat has experienced a series of marginalisations before this, only to reappear to grab power after the March 8 political tsunami . Unfortunately, he has paved the way for MCA to return to those old days when factional interests overrode any other consideration for unity, team spirit and consolidation.

The promise of a new MCA with new values , news politics, to reinvent, rebuild and re-engineer the party have all failed to materialised. It will not be long before the MCA starts to plunge into another internal crisis, ending whatever hope members may be harbouring for rebuilding and reengineering.

Similarly, this internal power game will see MCA candidates falling like dominos when put to test in the next general election.

For the first time in history, MCA is proud to have its president and secretary-general who are both mechanical engineers but they cannot re-engineer for the party’s good. Their re-engineering processes are meant to fail the party and its members.

Sad to say, the MCA president has obviously displayed bad intentions and motives when applying the powers of the party constitution, giving way to the creation of a one-sided power equation. The power equation currently only serves the interests of the president’s own men, some totally unknown to the grassroots.

For a party with so much human resources to tap from, the MCA president has acted as if the party is already brewing a crisis. What a pity. The MCA delegates have elected a trigger-happy and crisis- happy president.