Ex-MCA veep: Chinese have rejected Ka Ting

Ex-MCA veep: Chinese have rejected Ka Ting
Soon Li Tsin | Mar 13, 08 5:36pm

Former MCA vice-president Chua Jui Meng made a plea to current party president Ong Ka Ting to do the right thing and step down.

At a press conference in his Kuala Lumpur office today, Chua said the Chinese community has already "rejected Ong in the clearest possible manner."

"For the sake of MCA, please reconsider your decision not to step down. You must do the honourable thing. It is only politically ethical to take responsibility," he said.

Describing the party’s election defeat as "the darkest hour in our history", the former health minister said Ong placed his personal agenda above MCA and Barisan Nasional (BN).

"He dropped all the experienced and senior MPs who consistently delivered the votes and carried huge majorities even in the 1999 elections. They were taken out in name of rejuvenation.

Bakri seat

Chua then proceeded to give several examples including his own seat in Bakri which was the sole parliamentary seat lost in the BN stronghold of Johor.

"I was taken out, the president did not even call me. I built up this parliamentary seat since 1986 which I won for five terms.

"What was the reason? Bakri was a strong division with 13,000 members. People said if I stood, they would support me, not the party," the seasoned politician related.

In 2004, Chua defeated DAP’s Azhari Ismail by a massive 19,059 majority.

However, in the elections that just ended, Ong picked Tay Puay Chuan from the Muar division who lost by 722 votes to DAP’s Er Teck Hwa.

Chua also said that Ong had picked new faces to contest in order to secure their votes to retain his president position in the party elections due to take place in three month’s time.

Silent politics

Another reason why MCA did so poorly was because Ong remained silent on many important issues that were besieging the Chinese community, according to Chua.

"He remained silent when people expected him as party president to speak up for the community. All he would say is that he would discuss this behind closed doors

"A silent politician is no politician. Silent politics is equivalent to zero politics. We paid for that big mistake he made," he asserted.

He added if MCA does not address the problem in its leadership, the party will suffer "a tsunami together with a tornado" in the next general election

Relations between Ong and Chua had soured since the latter challenged the former for the MCA presidential post in the 2004 party elections.

However Chua lost and has been sidelined by the party since then. He went on to focus on his business ventures soon after.

Asked whether he would make a political comeback, he smiled and answered: "I don’t think so. I’m thoroughly enjoying my time now."

Performed well

The 12th general election saw the opposition clocking their biggest win in history getting about 49 percent of the majority vote and 82 out of 222 parliamentary seats.

While Umno did not lose the bulk of their support, other component parties such as MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP suffered phenomenal losses.

Quizzed whether the plea for Ong to step down applies to BN chairperson Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as well, Chua replied: "No."

"The decision by Umno has already been made. He performed well under the circumstances," he said.

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