I refer to your news report entitled ‘ Go ahead, remove my portrait ’, highlighting the well known fact that former MCA president Ong Tee Keat is a sore loser after the March 28 re-election last year.  

Ong had thought that he was a clear winner for that three-cornered fight involving Chua Soi Lek, Ong Ka Ting and himself.  

During Tee Keat’s tenure as MCA chief many unprecedented records were set. He was the first-ever president to lose a vote of confidence in an EGM. He was also the first president to lose a reelection before his term expired. Furthermore, he set a record by holding two EGMs in a span of six months between October 2009 and March 2010. All in all, he left behind a trail of misfortune and misery for MCA.

On March 28 last year, the central delegates decidedly voted that enough was enough. Tee Keat is not fit to lead any more even though he keeps accusing others of being incompetent.  

Tee Keat has lost in a democratic election but he cannot accept the political reality. To him the 901 votes gathered by Chua is less credible compared to his 578 votes. Now that he is no longer in power, he has accused the party and its leadership of fading into irrelevance.

Had he been chosen as president, then everything would be relevant and competent. Tee Keat is back to his old habits again of being the lone ranger and trouble-maker.

Tee Keat’s actions and words just before the AGM were politically motivated to save his deteriorating fortunes. It all  centres on his own determination to retain the candidacy for the Pandan parliamentary seat come next GE, but sensing that things may not turn out to his favour, Tee Keat has decided to attack Chua’s weakest link of defence.

The last time Tee Keat applied the same attack strategy (the issue of morality) to sack Chua, it developed into a major crisis in the party, culminating with his own downfall from the presidential seat.  

Had Tee Keat not sacked Chua, MCA politics would be totally different now. It was Tee Keat’s own doing to start a full-fledged campaign to sack Chua, the then-deputy president. And since losing the presidency, Tee Keat is now trying all ways and means to regain it.

To regain power, Tee Keat has got to fight for this candidacy in Pandan or any seat allotted to MCA and later proceed to challenge Chua for the next presidency. However, Tee Keat is being too wishful as he may be axed and replaced in the GE line-up, before he can swing anything to his favour.  

Among the MCA grassroots, there is not much sympathy for Tee Keat after what the party had gone through under his leadership. People outside MCA may think that the open spat between Tee Keat and Chua is a very serious issue, but the party members generally hold the view that the sex DVD issue involving Chua has ended.

If Tee Keat thinks that politics in MCA could change quickly just because he has set his target on the sex video, he is making another big mistake again. It has been said that the most tragic words in any language is ‘too late’.

It is too late and too little for Tee Keat’s words to bear any weight on the party or the public. His own supporters like Heng Sai Kee, Gan Ping Sieu, Ti Lian Ker and Tan Cheng Liang have more or less abandoned him for greener pastures.

It is equally too late to try to change his own fortunes by now; Tee Keat will more likely be axed than be retained in the next GE. This is all his own doing, nobody is to be blamed.