The most recent MCA general assembly was a joke of sorts. Its no-contest election came from Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad because Team A and Team B failed to resolve their conflict amicably within the party.
The intervention by the Umno president once again established the fact that only Umno could call the shots within the ruling Barisan Nasional front.
This invitation of Umno to intervene in the internal affairs of MCA was a smack in the face of not only all MCA members but also the Chinese community who have proven great resilience to brave through economic hard times as well as excelling in many fields. But in politics, they have to learn from Umno.
This was not the first time that Umno was asked to mediate or intervene in the power struggle within the MCA. In 1984, the impasse in the power struggle between Tan Koon Swan and Neo Yee Pan factions also led to intervention by Umno leaders. Eighteen years later, the party, especially some of the leaders who had gone through that ordeal, has not learnt its lesson.
Infighting within the MCA is nothing new. In 1959, Tun Tan Cheng Lock was ousted by a young turk, Dr Lim Chong Eu, whose stance was not well received by Umno and Alliance chief Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj. Lim and his supporters wanted more seats to be allocated to MCA but the Tunku turned it down.
Lim and his supporters, including then deputy education minister Too Joon Hing, left the party. While Lim left the country for medical treatment, his lieutenants contested in the 1959 general election as independents with many MCA members supporting them, covertly and overtly.
Hainanese vs Foochow
Too was defeated narrowly in the Sitiawan (now Lumut) parliamentary constituency by an unknown Foochow businessman, Yong Woo Ming, in the test of strength between Hainanese (Too was then president of Malayan Hainanese Association) and Foochow. There was a substantial number of Hainanese residing in Pangkor island but the majority of the Chinese voters in the mainland were Foochow..
But in neighbouring Bruas parliamentary constituency, a Penang architect Yeoh Tat Beng triumphed largely through the support of local MCA members. Other successes of the independents included Chin See Ying and Quek Kai Dong in Negeri Sembilan, and Douglas Lee in Selangor.
Though they have the support of many Chinese teachers, guilds and associations, they had to compete with the PPP (led by the DR and SP Seenivasagam who shot to fame by providing legal service to the Chinese secondary school students who went on strike in protest against the government decision to abolish Junior Middle Three and Senior Middle Three government exams) in the Kinta Valley and the Socialist Front in Penang, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, and Johor.
These independents could only contest in predominantly Chinese constituencies as they were deprived of Malay support. When Lim returned after medical treatment abroad, he set up the United Democratic Party (UDP) which managed to carve some seats from the Socialist Front in Penang. The party was unable to expand beyond Penang as it is Chinese-based. It later teamed up with some prominent academics and former leaders of the Labour Party such as Prof Syed Hussein Al-Attas, Prof Wang Gangwu, Dr Peters, Dr Tan Chee Khoon and V Veerapan, and changed its name to Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (GRM) to reflect its multi-racial make-up.
But the Chinese remained the anchor of the party. It toppled the Alliance government in Penang in the 1969 general election and Lim became the chief minister.
Its multi-racial experiment has limited success because Umno and PAS drew away the Malays while the MIC attracted the Indians. In 1974, Lim brought GRM into the BN which was an enlargement of the Alliance Party. This membership provided a political life line to the GRM at the expense of the MCA which lost its monopoly of the Chinese constituencies and the chief ministership of Penang. It suited Umno's strategy of having the leverage to check its Chinese partners.
Misunderstood leader
Tan Siew Sin took over the leadership of MCA in 1961 from Dr Cheah Toon Lock who was interim MCA president. He remained at the helm of the party until April 8, 1974 when he retired for health reasons. It was quite clear that Lee San Choon would have toppled him if he had not stepped down gracefully.
Tan could not speak Mandarin or Chinese dialects. He was one of the most misunderstood Chinese leaders because he always adhered to high moral principles. He was held in high esteem by Umno leaders but condemned by Chinese opposition as a traitor to the race.
Unlike Tan, who was known for his integrity and respect from top Umno leaders, Lee did not enjoy such confidence. Under his leadership, MCA lost the prestigious finance portfolio. (Umno took away the Ministry of Trade earlier). Trying to regain the confidence of the Chinese community, he confronted then premier Hussein Onn with the demand for the allocation of 40 percent non-Malay intake in local universities but that was never implemented.
The effectiveness of the MCA leader in fulfilling the aspirations of the Chinese community depends very much on the trust and confidence of the top Umno leaders in him. To earn that, the MCA leader must have an impeccable record of competence and personal integrity. It may be a long time for the MCA to find a president who could match Tan Siew Sin.
Review constitution
To meet the challenges of the 21st century, the MCA needs to review its constitution. One alternative is to adopt the Umno model of giving equal weight or having a fixed number of delegates to all divisions. This would reduce the 'incentive' to plant phantom members.
The constitution should also be amended to include residential qualification to contest in division and branch positions as well as parliamentary and state elections. The state leaders should not be appointed by the president but should be elected by delegates to the state AGM. This will not only provide healthy competition but also enhance accountability of the state leaders to members in the state.
Another key issue is the over staying of top leaders. Term limit will provide an orderly transition of power. In politics, power corrupts when a leader stays too long. Term limit has worked very well for the American president who can only serve two terms (eight years consecutively). In most states in the US, the governors can only serve two terms. If the most powerful military and economic power in the world can afford to change its chief executive every four to eight years without suffering any disadvantage, there is merit for others to experiment it.
The current impasse between Team A and Team B has not been resolved after the recent AGM. The maintenance of status quo benefited the current position holders and delayed the infusion of new blood into power structure. The peace plan has merely reduced a full blast war to a "cold war." Clearly, the gap for cooperation is still wide. Each side would sabotage the other if his interest was not taken into consideration. That the PAS candidate could defeat the MCA candidate in the Kajang state constituency in 1999 should be a lesson to MCA leaders.
The current dilemma of the MCA is not whether Dr Ling Liong Sik or Lim Ah Lek should respectively step down as president and deputy president. The problem is who will take over the top position. Any leader who is firmly aligned to either Team A or Team B may not gain the full cooperation of their rivals and thus perpetuate the division within the party. The compromised leader should be someone who is moving towards the centre and not to the right or left. He should be a moderate and a man of integrity and competence who can earn the respect of the Chinese community as well as Umno leaders.
KC HO is the author of MCA: Leadership under siege (1984). He holds a BA, MA (Hons) in politics and LLB (Hons). He was a journalist and secretary-general of the National Union of Journalists. He was also a US Congressional Fellow. Feedback can be directed to [email protected]
