news analysis Say goodbye to the ‘odd couple’ of MCA politics - president Ong Ka Ting and his deputy Chan Kong Choy - who are in their final week at the helm of the party.

Say hello to a crowded field of wannabes, who will officially file their nominations this afternoon for the polls to be held on Saturday.

The last three months have thrown up big surprises as the jockeying and horse-trading for support heated up - the outcome is a ‘free for all’ election without predictable outcomes.

Ka Ting and Chan (left) were ‘appointees’ who inherited the mantle in 2003 under a peace formula that ended a three-year factional tussle between former president Dr Ling Liong Sik and his deputy Lim Ah Lek.

However, few were aware there was a political conspiracy attached to the pre-conceived “succession plan” involving marginalisation of party leaders so that Ka Ting could take over. He had won Ling’s trust and confidence as early as 1999.

An informed source said Ka Ting had been selected over three candidates and that only one objection had been raised at the time.

A legal document supports this claim, outlining a detailed succession scheme to facilitate Ling’s retirement plan that was implemented from 1996 to 2003.

It catapulted Ka Ting to an elected vice-president two terms ahead of Chan who was Youth chief (and therefore, a non-elected vice-president).

Other senior leaders identified as politically threatening to Ka Ting and who were to be subjected to the ‘marginalisation exercise’ were Ah Lek, Ting Chew Peh (right) and Chua Jui Meng from the rival ‘Team B’ camp.

One part of the scheme was to remove Ting as secretary-general in favour of Ka Ting. However, Ting clung on until 2005 when he challenged Kong Choy for the deputy presidency.

On hindsight, the strategy was to promote Ka Ting so that he could challenge Ah Lek for the deputy presidency in 2002 or 2005.

Some believe that the same strategy is being played out today - Ka Ting’s brother Ka Chuan was appointed secretary-general in 2005 and is now running for deputy president.

‘Natural’ progression to top

By 1999, Ka Ting had served two terms as elected vice-president and he was re-elected up to 2002. This allowed him to consolidate his seniority.

Also as planned, he was appointed a cabinet minister with the housing and local government portfolio, replacing Ting on Dec 15, 1999. All this while, the ‘marginalised’ Chan remained a deputy minister.

Ling (right) has since privately denied that his plan had involved other individuals, although he admitted to a “deliberate” effort to consolidate Ka Ting’s political position so that he would be the beneficiary of the party crown.

By 2001, Ling had made Ka Ting a confidante in political planning and appointments to major party projects including the period when the Ling-Lim crisis was at its height.

For Ka Ting, the quest for power was unnecessary for, by 2003, he had made a ‘natural’ progression to leadership. Ling’s exit came on May 23, 2003, at a central committee meeting at the party headquarters.

It took Ka Ting 24 years to reach the pinnacle after his political career began in 1979. But the paradox of the long climb has been his short stint as president - he chose not to defend the post to take responsibility for MCA’s abject performance in the March general election.

The last six months have been punctuated with controversy and political dramas like the ‘Save MCA Campaign’ and ‘Anti-Snoop Squad’.Detractors, rivals and critics have publicly aired their grouses against a leadership they alleged to be ‘arrogant, unjust and undemocratic’.

Against this background, Chan too decided to end to his political career by not defending his post. Some claimed this was due to the Port Klang Free Zone controversy.

Last-minute changes?

It then became apparent that a new chapter was being opened in the party’s leadership history.

Vice-president Ong Tee Keat (left) became the first to announce his bid for the presidency, followed by former vice-president Chua Jui Meng.

The contest for deputy president could be a four-corner affair - Ka Chuan, Dr Chua Soi Le, Donald Lim Siang Chai and the low-profile Lee Hock Teik (former Pengkalan Kota state assemblyperson).

Detractors have trained their sights on Ka Chuan’s U-turn, as he had said in June that he had “no intention” to contest either of the top two posts.

A Perak divisional chairperson noted sarcastically: “(He) should be forgiven for his habitual double-speak. We have to decide whether such a character can make a good deputy president.”

Rivals hold Ka Chuan (left) responsible for the loss of Perak state to the opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat in the general election. They say his ‘conservative mindset, arrogance and lack of intellectual depth’ would be detrimental to the party should he be elected deputy president.

Soi Lek, a staunch supporter of Ling, fell out of favour with the incumbent leadership which at one time regarded him a political threat to Ka Ting.

Certain quarters will be watching the number of votes Soi Lek obtains, as indication of forgiveness or otherwise of a sex scandal which had forced his exit from the party and cabinet in January.

Lim, less known for his fighting spirit on public issues but rather respected for ‘toeing the party line’ will test his popularity. It is believed that his allies are persuading him to contest a vice-president’s slot instead.

An insider aligned to Soi Lek (right) disclosed cryptically: “A last-minute attempt is being made before nomination day to reduce the number of contestants for the deputy presidency. Anything can happen.”

The contest for the four elected vice-presidential posts is crowded. Among the aspirants are those holding cabinet posts - Liow Tiong Lai (health minister), Ng Yen Yen (women and family development minister), Kong Cho Ha (deputy finance minister) and Chor Chee Heung (deputy home minister).

It is believed that the number of contenders for these posts will exceed expectations. As such, rumours are circulating that two of them are being targeted to be “voted out”.

Liow was embroiled in the alleged snoop squad issue and is embroiled in criticism of the ‘Ong-Ong’ camp.

Ng may be popular with her Wanita wing, but her frequent outbursts on public-interest issues have not endeared her to male delegates. She had called for castration of male rapists, banning domestic helpers from China (to prevent husbands from going astray) and for wives to “make themselves pretty”.

Little wonder, then, that a pundit who has been following MCA elections for more than a decade foresees the election as one complicated by contrasting characters and competing inter-state matters.