news feature

Just like the award-winning film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , the undercurrent within Malaysian Chinese politics, marked by fights among individuals or factions who are aligned to different partisan and non-partisan interests, is often overlooked if the spectators are anything less than discerning.

So when the influential ethnic-based group Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall held its biennial election recently; to some it was just balloting, but to others who know the rule of the game  Ngan was quick to mobilise all affiliates in the state into opposing the deal and criticised "certain MCA leaders" for initiating the acquisition.

At the height of the controversy, MCA called Ngan "the trouble-maker in the Chinese community" and claimed that the leader was only seeking publicity for himself.

However, throughout his four-year tenure as the SCAH president, the hall was undeniably vocal on numerous issues, among others, the closure of the original site of SJK(C) Damansara and the opposition to Vision School, a government proposal to place primary schools of different teaching medium each in the same compound.

Not all leaders in SCAH are aligned to political parties, however. The new president who was elected on Sunday, Ting Chee Seng, for one was actively involved in and still known to be closely linked to the vocal education movement United Chinese School Committees' Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong).

That Ting could become the helmsman of SCAH should be attributed to Ngan who had cleared the obstacles in the way beforehand.

SCAH has 45 committee members, 17 of whom are elected. Another 22 are permanent members who are representing the organisations which helped stablise the conflict-ridden SCAH some 70 years ago. The remaining six are appointed members.

The top posts including president, deputy president, and four vice-presidents are chosen every two years among the 45 committee members after the 17 elected members have been chosen in an open contest.

Restoration of democracy

When Ngan first became the SCAH president, he had reaffirmed the stand by reformists within the organisation to abolish the status of the permanent committee members in the name of "restoration of democracy".

The pro-reform faction questioned the validity of the 22 organisations as many of them have become less active. In addition to that, the 22 only constitute 6.5 percent of the total 335 member organisations and yet take up to 56 percent of the committee member's posts.

Permanent members led by Liew Poon Shiak have since opposed strongly the move to abolish their status. Liew, an MCA member, had earlier contested Ngan for the SCAH presidency but was defeated by one vote.

The veteran leader who was SCAH deputy president and honourary secretary during the early 1990s was believed to have attempted a comeback. He is now seen close to Prime Minister Mahathir after he served the premier tea at a National Day celebration last August.

A war erupts

A 'war' eventually erupted between Ngan's faction and Liew's faction. Numerous lawsuits were filed between 1998 and 1999.

Liew tried to seek an injunction at the Kuala Lumpur High Court against the setting up of an action committee within SCAH that was supposed to look into the abolition proposal. The case was struck out and he was ordered to pay for the expenses of the defendant totalling to RM143,000.

Then lawyer ST Lee, an ally of Liew, claimed that the 1998 SCAH biennial election was illegal because of three "phantom members". It was taken to the Kuala Lumpur High Court, and Lee lost the case.

Subsequently, the action committee convened an extraordinary general meeting on April 26, 1999 and obtained consent from 155 members to proceed with the proposed amendment of the SCAH constitution to abolish the status of permanent members.

This time Lee filed a suit against Ngan and asked the Kuala Lumpur High Court to rule the EGM as null and void. He again lost the case in July the same year and it has since been pending at the Court of Appeal.

Many expect the pro-reform faction to be at loggerheads with the permanent members soon. But what interests the public more is whether SCAH will repeat what it did — submitting Suqiu to the government on the eve of the 1999 general election — at the forthcoming national polls.

And the role SCAH plays for the next two years shall indicate which force prevails within the organisation.