Instead of being an exciting event as in the past, the MCA 49th annual general meeting today ended on a tame note with little interest shown by delegates evident in the low turnout throughout the second half of the proceeding.
A total of 2,283, or 81.57 percent, delegates attended the opening of the AGM this morning at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad arrived at the venue at 10am and was greeted by some 1,000 MCA members, mostly non-delegates, who chanted his name while holding banners of praise.
Accompanying him was his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and other Barisan Nasional leaders such as MIC president S Samy Vellu, Gerakan president Dr Lim Keng Yaik, and People's Progressive Party president M Kayveas.
The ceremony started with a presidential address by MCA chief Dr Ling Liong Sik, followed by Mahathir's opening speech.
Soon after the motion of thanks to the president for his speech, assembly speaker Yik Phooi Hong took his place and read out the list of central committee members and announced that they were 'elected' into their posts for 2002-2005.
MCA was scheduled to have its triennial party election today but the actual balloting did not take place due to the 'no contest' rule decided by the CC in line with a peace plan put forward by Mahathir earlier in April.
No active participation
Soon after this, the proceeding stopped for lunch. When the one-hour break was over, only about one-fifth of the delegates returned for the debate on the presidential speech and resolutions.
Most of the chairs were empty. Unlike the last AGM, delegates did not take part actively and did not applaud much for the rest of the proceeding.
They only showed some reactions jeering and booing when the leaders they supported, either party chief Ling or his deputy Lim Ah Lek, were criticised by the delegates who participated in the debate.
Little, if not none at all, was discussed about the state of unity in MCA as the party is still trying to close ranks after a year-long open split since the takeover of Nanyang Press Holdings last May.
Instead, one of the resolutions was to thank Mahathir for "his concern for the unity and stability in MCA and to fully support the implementation of the peace plan formulated by the prime minister".
Other resolutions revolve around the rise of 'extremism' in Malaysia, the Hudud laws proposed by the PAS Terengganu government, and the support for the government's effort to improve the teaching of English in schools.
Many issues unresolved
But while everything seemed all right on the surface, many issues remain unresolved.
Compared to the last AGM which recorded a total of 2,384 delegates on the list, there were more new delegates this year due to a drastic increase of members over four months late last year.
However, of the 400-odd new vacancies, about half were still unfilled as members in many divisions aligned to either Team A led by Ling or Team B led by Lim could not agree on the candidates.
Apart from this, one delegate told malaysiakini when met outside the hall that most of his peers decided to skip the AGM after lunch as they felt no urgency to attend it.
"The leaders are just the same and there was not even a real election, why should we go in?" he asked.
More than just a sign of protest, perhaps many of the delegates left the AGM halfway out of frustration as they could not exercise their rights to vote for the leaders they want.
After all, they had been rallying support for leaders of their choice over the past year in preparation for the big day, until they were told to bury the hatchets and be friends with one another again.
At the end of the AGM, MCA president Ling told a press conference that the low turnout was "something that we have to think about and find means to overcome it".
He said he did not have any idea about what had caused the low turnout as those delegates had come from various states but ended up going other places.
The fact is, neither could other leaders answer that question too, though they may know deep in heart the reason.
