opinion

After 14 long years of uneventful peace and idle tranquility, the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), the second largest component party of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN), has finally found something interesting, important and emotional enough to split into factions and to exchange polemics openly.

And an Extraordinary General Meting (EGM) of the political party scheduled for June 24 has also been called by its besieged president Ling Liong Sik, to seek endorsement of the 'normal business transaction' of buying over two Chinese-language newspapers.

Earlier, the highly political Presidential Council (PC) and Central Committee (CC) had also been called on to support the 'business deal' in which MCA's offer of RM5.50 per share outbid another offer of RM6.50 per share, allegedly made by its fellow component party, Gerakan.

The normally cool and calm president with his characteristically uninspiring smiles has also suddenly changed his tone, temper and appearance, now using language only normally found in the Chinese author Sun Tze's Art of War German Karl von Clausewitz's On War , like the deal had to be conducted with speed and secrecy.

The graduate of Sungai Besi Military College also openly charged his intra-party opponents like deputy president Lim Ah Lek, vice presidents Chua Jui Ming and Chan Kong Choy and Youth chief Ong Tee Keat as 'desperate liars'.

Muddy swamp

However, the originally 'secretive and speedy' operation to take over the Nanyang Siang Pau and the China Press for a faction in the party, has landed the president and his shock-troop on a very muddy swamp in a tropical jungle, being surrounded by hostile forces, open and silent, ranging from intra-party dissidents, partner-cum-rival Gerakan and the opposition Barisan Alternatif (BA).

Not forgetting the reticently powerful Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce, the Chinese-language education groups like the United Chinese School Committees Association (Dongzong) and United Chinese School Teachers Association (Jiaozong), hundred of other Chinese associations or shetuan , youth organisations, and Chinese-speaking intellectuals, writers, columnists and journalists.

On the ground, like it or not, the very derogatory and insulting label of MCA being a 'running dog', popularly used in the four decades before the '90s, has returned to the consciousness and lips of the Chinese lower-middle and working classes in coffee shops and markets throughout the country.

And so, an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) has to be called 'to decide once and for all' on the issue. Whether the loser, be it Ling's or anti-Ling's faction, would accept once and for all the decision of the delegates to the EGM, is not very clear at this moment.

Emotionally dramatic

But it is widely believed in the Chinese community that the issue is only the curtain-raiser of a more intense and prolonged power struggle to be culminated in the party elections next year.

Already, there are calls for 'traitors' to be sacked and the reciprocal urge for the tenure of the president be limited to three terms. A more polite, polished and cultured voice has been heard advising Ling, who has been in power for 15 years, 'not to stay on a day longer than necessary'.

The last EGM was not only eventful but also emotionally dramatic. It was held in 1985 at the height of the last economic recession, and it saw the reinstatement of 14 leaders as members of the party after they were sacked by the then acting president Dr Neo Yee Pan who opposed 'mixing politics with business'.

The 14, including Ling Liong Sik, then overthrew Neo and purged his supporters from the top leadership. But the victors did not enjoy their reign very long, for shortly afterward, its president Tan Koon Swan, the mentor of Ling, was arrested, charged, convicted and jailed by the Singaporean authorities for criminal breach of trust and fraud in business transactions.

Another two powerful lieutenants of Tan, namely organising secretary Wang Choon Weng and Youth leader Kee Yong Hui were also later jailed in Malaysia for criminal breach of trust in the deposit-taking cooperatives scandal. And MCA was so badly in debt that it nearly had to auction off its headquarters, Wisma MCA, located in Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur.

Backroom operative

Which faction will win in the coming EGM scheduled for June 24? At the top level, both factions appear to be equally strong and powerful with the right configuration of personalities. The English-educated medical doctor and Transport minister Ling Liong Sik is assisted by English-educated economist Dr.Fong Chan Onn who is also the Human Resource Minister.

Chinese-educated chief propagandist Wong See Wah who is a former deputy Finance minister and also Chinese-educated Ong Ka Ting, who is a party vice-president and the minister for Housing and Local Government.

Ong Ka Ting has not been in the limelight in the controversy but his role and efficiency as a backroom operative and off-the-scene coalition builder for Ling's faction can only be dismissed at the great peril of Chua and his faction.

Ong's elder brother, Ka Chuan whose power base is entrenched in Perak from where most of the delegates would come, holds the powerful post of national organising secretary and thus maintains the membership list, keeps the postal and email addresses and the telephone and fax numbers of members, delegates and leaders.

Chief strategist

In politics, a high moral ground and strong public rhetoric could be defeated by the mastery of operational details, like those held by the Ong brothers.

However, at this stage, the strength of the English-educated lawyer Chua cannot be underestimated either. He is also assisted by some experienced elders in the party like the independent family businessmen Lim Ah Lek who is also English-educated, and Wong Mok Leong, a Chinese-educated lawyer who has been known for a long time as the chief strategist of the party.

Wong, while intensely passionate in politics, has never shown any interest of becoming an elected member of parliament or state assemblyman. He seems to enjoy working behind the scenes as tactical adviser, strategy-designer, trouble-shooter and coalition builder, for the party and now for a faction of the party.

Chua is also now joined by two high-profile Chinese-educated populists, namely Youth chief Ong Tee Keat and vice president Chan Kong Choy. Ong Tee Keat, also the deputy minister for Youth and Sports, writes with high or bombastic Mandarin Chinese in newspapers and other publications, while Chan, a graduate of Chinese studies from the Malaya University, speaks to crowds with popular symbolism and expressions not only in Mandarin, but also the Cantonese and Hakka dialects.

Tap the discontent

Both Ong Tee Keat and Chan Kong Choy are considered as strong rivals to the rather secretive Ong Ka Teng who is seen to be the anointed successor of president Ling. Ong Ka Teng was also the political secretary to Ling.

On the outer fronts or flanks, while Ling's faction is supported by a certain degree of bias by Sarawak tycoon Tiong Hiew King's Sin Chew Jit Poh and the the MCA-owned The Star , as well as not very subtly by the current leadership of the Federation of Chinese Assembly Halls or Huazong, Chua could tap the discontent of journalists and editors of Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press , as well as the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall and its president Ngan Chin Wen and other voices critical of MCA's takeover of the two newpapers, to work or to opine in his favour.

Although Ling and his faction have already charged Chua for working to the advantage of the opposition and to the detriment of MCA and the BN, a victory for Ling within the party in the coming EGM, amidst the widespread and popular opposition to the takeover of the two newspapers would, on the contrary, almost certainly alienate a large section of the Chinese community whose crucial support Dr Mahathir and Umno need desperately to offset the declining Malay loyalty, in the coming general elections.

Thus, while Dr Mahathir and Umno have good strategic reasons to secretly hope for a win for Chua and the dissidents in MCA who seems to enjoy tremendous goodwill in the Chinese community at the moment, wise and far-sighted BA and Gerakan strategists and tacticians must be also secretly praying for intra-party victories for Ling and his faction in the coming EGM and next year's party election.

Real politics, after all, is an art of paradoxes and the dialectics of appearance and real intentions.

JAMES WONG WING ON is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and also a leading Mandarin-Chinese opinion writer and columnist. He read economics and political science at the Monash University in Australia from 1983 to 1986. All views expressed herein are his own, and are open to criticisms and debates.