INTERVIEW Despite his decision to step down as MCA president last year, Dr Chua Soi Lek says he will not stop taking jabs at his party successors for as long as he can.

Chua said by leaving the leadership after three decades in MCA, those who think he is quitting politics altogether are wrong: he will hit out occasionally, when MCA takes a misstep, for he is still an elected central delegate.

An issue in point: when the party leaders recently tried to lobby support to re-enter the cabinet, tearing down a prohibition he had erected during his term of presidency.

"I only said I would not defend the presidency, and I sought election as a central delegate so that I can contribute in whatever way I can.

"You see, retirement does not mean becoming brain dead. I love the party, I am still concerned about the party... half of my active life was in MCA," said Chua who turns 67 this year.

Speaking in an interview with Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider at a hotel in Petaling Jaya, Chua said his sharp tongue was not because he also wanted to promote his son, Chua Tee Yong.

"To me, Tee Yong's position in the party... everybody thinks that it's my main concern but it's not true. Tee Yong has already won twice as an MP and he has also been a deputy minister. It is up to him to perform," he said.

But Chua, whose rivalry with MCA president Liow Tiong Lai has turned into a public spat since last year, is not impressed by Liow's first two months in power.

What has Liow done to reform MCA?

"Liow has been talking a lot about reformation and transformation. But to be honest, I have seen nothing... it is all sloganeering.

"Can you tell me what has he done to reform and change MCA, other than just talking about it and talking about going back to the cabinet? For the sake of the party, I hope there will be people to advise him that slogans will not do," Chua said.

Asked whether MCA would fare better in the next general election, under Liow, Chua said: "Well, I pray that Liow in his wisdom will change and be more inclusive.

"And the policy of the MCA should not be ‘you are for me or you are against me’. It should be everybody together to move the party forward. If Liow lets his supporters determine what he does, then I do not think MCA will do well," he said.

Barely a month after handing over the presidency, Chua had his knives out for Liow on Jan 16. He accused his successor of becoming a turncoat, producing secret agreements between them that he claimed Liow did not honour.

Elaborating, Chua said the agreements were on who to appoint within MCA in order to help heal party wounds. Chua, who gave up his practice as a medical doctor to become a full time politician in 1990, said he was saddened to see MCA guttered each time after the party elections.

"In order to rebuild MCA, the policy of leadership must be inclusive. Everybody must come on board, then only MCA has a chance. You cannot have MCA reformation with 50 percent of the members working and the other 50 percent not working or pretending to work," Chua said.

"In MCA, it is very common to say, ‘You are either with me or you are against me’. Faction politics in MCA is very toxic, and that is why the party shrinks each time after a party election."

MCA can dwindle, but it won’t die

During GE13 last year, MCA won only seven parliamentary and 11 state assembly seats. This is a sharp decline from its heyday in 2004, when the party took 31 MP seats and 76 state assembly seats.

The MCA may dwindle, but it won't die, Chua said.

"It doesn't mean that when MCA is weak, we have to sign the obituary for MCA... that's not fair.

"MCA has grown out of a very bad time in 1969, we came back. We have gone through 13 elections in which we have thrashed DAP, if I am not mistaken, seven times," Chua said.

 "The political fortune of any party will go up and down. Never write off any political party,  especially so in Malaysia."

Calling himself still a better leader than Liow, Chua said he always puts party interests first.

"When I became president, I tried to reach out to Liow's people, Ong Tee Keat's people. And that's very obvious, for I appointed Gan Peng Sieu, Donald Lim and Chor Chee Heung, although I knew all these people never supported me," he said.

Even some of his loyalists, such as MCA central committee member Mah Hang Soon, have changed somewhat.

Mah was one of the strongest lobbyists for an EGM to vote to allow MCA leaders to take up government positions at local government, state and federal levels - something Chua vehemently opposes till now.

Chua says this is a ploy by Liow to make himself a minister in a hurry.

"That is politics, I don't blame him (Mah)... that's okay with me because I am wise enough to know that the ups and downs of politics are like that," Chua said.

Besides an end to infighting, Chua said, the second thing that can help MCA claw back the Chinese voters is for the party to clearly contribute to the overall BN policymaking machinery.

But for now, Chua said, he reserved his comments on the recent racial and religious issues and the strategies MCA could employ in these areas.

Yesterday: Use Kajang as acid test, Soi Lek tells MCA