I was sharing a meal with some friends, including the leader of a local MCA branch. He asked me what I thought of this continuing tussle between Ong Tee Keat and Chua Soi Lek, and I gave my two cents’ worth.

His feelings were obviously more ambivalent. He supported Ong’s reform agenda and his exposure of the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal, but he looked askance at the party chief’s apparent persecution of Chua. He has a point, for he argued that at this critical time for MCA, the party needed every leader of impressive calibre, including Chua.