Peace plan may lead to greater crisis, warn MCA leaders
The peace plan currently pursued by MCA is only prolonging the partys internal strife and the leadership crisis may re-emerge on a greater scale within the next few weeks, said several party leaders today.
A Selangor MCA leader said Team B was not happy with the no-contest ruling until 2005 because their understanding of the peace deal was that the status quo for party posts was only until the next general elections, which could be held as early as next year.
They are trying to clarify with Prime Minister [Dr Mahathir Mohamad] over the confusion. It is pointless to hold party elections with no contest. Team B wants to have the party elections, but with a clean membership list, added the leader who declined to be named.
He also noted that it was difficult to persuade the supporters of both Team A and Team B not to contest for posts at the party elections.
The battle-cry has been going on for a year now. You cant talk them out, especially those who had won the branch elections last month and are ambitious to climb up the ladder in their political career, he said.
It is also difficult to expect the two camps (Team A and Team B) to work with each other considering their problems in the past. The rift between them is not easy to mend, he added.
Membership list
According to another veteran leader, the main bone of contention — the dispute over the partys membership list — is unlikely to fade out entirely.
If those dubious names are not taken off the list, when the divisional elections go on next month, Team A will still to have an advantage over Team B, he said, on condition of anonymity.
The leader added that even though Team A leader and party president Dr Ling Liong Sik had announced no-contest for party posts at all levels, it is uncertain whether the new delegates would support the idea.
In any case, the delegates may just vote for Lings faction and oust Team B leaders. Ling can of course claim later that this is beyond his control, he said.
While things seem to be back to normal now, the bickering will return next month if the controversy surrounding the membership list is not dealt with, he added.
The divisional elections next month will witness a batch of new delegates being voted in. They will subsequently attend the June 29 annual general assembly to choose the central leaders including the president, his deputy as well as four vice-presidents for a three year term.
The number of MCA delegates after the forthcoming divisional elections will be 2,667, compared to 2,384 now.
The increase is largely due to a sudden surge of membership within four months late last year when 135,000 new members were recruited.
Despite their initial insistence to proceed with divisional elections on schedule, Team A had rescheduled the polls, originally fixed for April 28 to May 14 — in accordance with the agenda for peace and stability proposed by Mahathir last week.
In return, the opposing faction Team B led by party deputy president Lim Ah Lek had agreed not to pursue their allegation about phantom members among the 135,000 new names, for now.
MCA was split openly last May into two feuding factions following the partys takeover of two Chinese dailies Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press . In the past year, the leaders of both camps had clashed over different issues including the manner of how the party elections are conducted.
Citing the example of MCA Youth section, another party leader said the supporters and certain leaders are already indicating their resentment towards the peace plan which calls for no-contest.
Past age limit
Many Youth leaders are over the age limit of 45. If it is no contest, then the party constitution would have to be amended to enable them to stay, and this will erode the credibility and professionalism of the section, said the leader who wished to remain anonymous.
They are also worried that MCA may become a laughing stock to the Chinese community because the party leaders take the instruction of no-contest from the Barisan Nasional without question, he added.
Yesterday, three Youth leaders aligned to Team A — vice-chairperson Loh Seng Kok, secretary-general Yeow Tiong Look, and central committee member Chng Toh Eng — had urged the party to allow contest at the sections polls next month.
We cannot avoid the feud and problems within the leadership and we should settle it once and for all at the party elections by allowing people to contest, Chng was quoted as saying by Nanyang Siang Pau today.
MCA currently claims over one million members, making it the second largest BN component party representing ethnic Chinese in the ruling coalition after the Malay-led Umno which has some three million members.
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