analysis

Besieged MCA president and transport minister Dr Ling Liong Sik appears to have lost his cool. Immediately after removing his potential challenger, Health Minister Chua Jui Meng as the Kedah state chief, Ling cited party constitution, to decline giving reasons or grounds for the removal. However, he seems to have changed his mind.

Yesterday, the Umno-controlled New Straits Times quoted Dr Ling as saying that the removal of his vice-president was merely to "fulfill the wishes of the Chinese community" as Kedah MCA had long wanted a "local man" to head the party. Chua is a member of parliament for the Bakri parliamentary constituency in Johor.

However, another more authoritative version was published today in the MCA-owned China Press which also quoted Ling as saying: "It is he (Chua) who wants to kill my political life, not the other way round. He (Chua) has lied to many (MCA) members and smeared my reputation and those of my family members, but fortunately, many members also reported to me about his machination".

While it is still difficult at this stage to know with certainty the nature of the alleged "lies" attributed to Chua by Ling, speculation has been rife in the Chinese community in the past two months that there was "secret profiteering" in the transaction of the acquisition of Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press .

Cabinet post

In the China Press Ling was also quoted as denying that the removal of Chua as MCA Kedah state chief had anything to do with the acquisition of Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press in late May this year by Ling's faction which was opposed by Chua and seven other top MCA leaders.

Another Chinese-language daily, Sin Chew Jit Poh gave more details of Ling's public response. Ling was reported to have declined to comment on whether Chua would lose his health minister portfolio in the cabinet.

According to the Federal Constitution of Malaysia, the appointment of ministers is the prerogative of the prime minister, but it has become a political convention in the ruling Barisan Nasional that the chiefs of component parties nominate ministers, deputy ministers and parliamentary secretaries to the prime minister, who is always the president of Umno.

In the Sin Chew Jit Poh report, Ling was also quoted as saying that the BN chairman, who is also the prime minister, finance minister and Umno president, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has not responded to the removal of Chua as the MCA Kedah state chief. Ling claimed that the basis of co-operation among component parties of the BN is founded on the principle of "non-interference".

However, at the height of the public controversy of the MCA takeover of Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press , deputy Umno president and deputy premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as well as Gerakan president Dr Lim Keng Yaik openly "advised" Ling's faction to be "more sensitive" of the feelings and sentiments of the Chinese community.

It is believed and said that the stability or otherwise of MCA would affect BN as a whole in the coming general elections.

Ling also claimed that, according to the feedback he has obtained from travelling around "the entire country", "the Chinese community" has already "forgotten" about the controversial MCA takeover of the two Chinese-language newspapers.

Ling further claimed that "the Chinese community" is now more concerned with the progress of setting up the Tunku Abdul Rahman University (Utar) whose operating licence was granted by the cabinet to MCA.

Politically emasculated

Meanwhile, the factional comrades-in-arm of Chua like deputy president Lim Ah Lek, Youth chief Ong Tee Keat and central committee member Fu Ah Kiow were all reported in the Chinese newspapers as saying that Chua's removal was "no surprise".

However, it seems that Chua is rather embarrassed because after neglecting his original and organic base in Johor for so many years, he is now also cut off politically from Kedah. Ling has already appointed an old loyalist, Dr Chua Sooi Lek as the new Johor state chief to block Chua's political return to the southern state.

Ling has also appointed another old loyalist and Chinese-educated propagandist, Wong See Wah, to be in charge of the management of the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. Wong is also a former deputy finance minister.

The seemingly well-planned and multi-front pre-emptive strike against Chua by Ling and his faction has enabled one very critical figure moving behind the scene largely unnoticed by the public, namely Ling's protege and potential successor to the president, Ong Ka Teng.

Ong is a former political-secretary to Ling, and his Perak-based elder brother Ka Chuan holds the powerful post of national organising secretary who is in charge of the membership lists and files, postal addresses and telephone and fax numbers of members, leaders and delegates, and their branches and divisions.

In the past few years, Ong has developed close relationships with some Chinese businessmen, and owners and top editors of Chinese-language newspapers, and built even closer relationships with many Chinese-language journalists. The now minister of housing and local government was a deputy home affairs minister.

Before the outbreak of MCA's power struggle, Ong was once tipped to be the most likely successor to Ling because his protege would be loyal to his former sifu (teacher).

There is still a possibility that, when pressed hard enough by public opinion in the Chinese community, Ling would step down from the presidency in favour of Ong.

Ling has the upper hand

However, if Chua really mounts a presidential challenge in the coming party elections next August, Ong would face a problem and handicap.

Unlike the professionally educated Chua who is more cosmopolitan, relatively knowledgeable in world affairs and confident in the high society of multi-ethnic elite, Ong is comparatively more "parochial" because he seems to enjoy only socialising in the ageing and monolingual Chinese-speaking circles of businessmen and leaders of Chinese associations.

At the moment, it seems that Ling's faction still commands advantages in terms of manpower, economic and organisational resources. However, Chua is not totally without hope either: at least, there is a solid bloc of voters from Pahang which is united behind deputy president Lim Ah Lek, as well as the almost overwhelming public opinion on the Chinese ground.

Whether the Chinese public opinion could influence party delegates would ultimately depend on three factors:

1) Does Chua have the will power, resolution, fortitude and moral courage to strike back at Ling by declaring a do-or-die battle royale for the presidency?

2) If Chua chooses to mount a presidential challenge to Ling, what are the public issues that he will articulate and advocate?

3) Would Chua and his faction be able to break the media bias imposed on them by the English-language and Chinese-language newspapers owned by Ling's faction of MCA financially, or influenced also by Ling's faction politically?

JAMES WONG is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM) which produces the subscriber-based [#1] Analysis Malaysia [/#]. More information, facts, figures and analyses on MCA, its major personalities, factional antagonists and faultlines can be obtained from the website. SAM is currently working on a special issue on politics in the Malay-Muslim heartland which includes Kedah.