MCA's finest hour in 1985 was also its last hurrah?
Excerpt from K Temoc's lengthy letter to Malaysiakini, MCA - three strikes and you're out!
"MCA’s finest hour
Thirty years ago Lee San Choon had accepted a dare by Lim Kit Siang to contest in a Chinese majority constituency, and chose a DAP’s hor siew (Chinese for tiger’s lair, meaning stronghold) in the federal constituency of Seremban. Lee won and so did MCA in 24 out of 28 allocated parliamentary seats and 55 out of 62 state seats. It was MCA’s finest hour, but not realising it was its last hurrah.
Lee San Choon then left almost immediately after his election victory because of differences with Dr Mahathir Mohamad, then the president of Umno, not unlike what Lim Chong Eu did when he, as president of MCA, disagreed with Tunku Abdul Rahman.
The perverse thing about the Gelang Patah challenge is that the constituency is not only a Chinese majority seat but a truly MCA hor siew (stronghold). Yet Chua Soi Lek shrank from direct competition with Lim Kit Siang in an election battle which will show who Johoreans in that constituency believe in and support.
In Chua Soi Lek’s refusal to contest Lim, he has effectively announced to the world that the president of the Malaysian Chinese Association and thus the MCA don’t enjoy the confidence and political support of Chinese Malaysians. That was MCA’s obituary, courtesy of its party president Chua Soi Lek..."
"There has been incorrect posturing of Abdul Ghani Othman as a courageous and well-liked person among Chinese because of his so-called moderate politics and humble self.
Firstly, there’s nothing courageous about his candidature. Abdul Ghani in the Umno scheme of things is already expendable cannon fodder to make way for Umno’s new rising stars in Johor..."
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MCA - three strikes and you're out!
http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/226149
Excerpt from another letter to Malaysiakini by Ho Kin Chai: ‘Soi Lek a tiger or political eunuch?’
"COMMENT Following its poor performance in the 2008 general election, MCA is at the crossroad – to take the bull (its rival) by the horns or sink into the road of oblivion.
The current MCA leadership, particularly president Dr Chua Soi Lek, has failed to seize this opportunity to take on Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah.
Lim has taken a bold gamble by thrusting himself into the traditional BN and MCA stronghold.
Johor is the backyard of MCA which won seven out of eight parliamentary seats it contested in 2008.
The DAP wrested Bakri, causing a dent. As the MCA president, Chua should seize this golden opportunity to take up this challenge."
"By not taking up the challenge, he was sending a negative signal to its senior partner, Umno, and the MCA candidates and general membership.
Being the MCA supremo, he must rise up to the occasion to give Lim the strongest possible resistance.
Chua was reported to have said that he was a winnable candidate.
It is obvious that Lim is trying to create a momentum in the Pakatan Rakyat’s quest to wrest Putrajaya."
"It was also true that Lim was not invincible. He was defeated by Gan Boon Leong in a state seat in Melaka.
In Penang, he had mixed results in his quest to wrest the state government.
His greatest prize was defeating the sitting Chief Minister Lim Chong Eu in the latter’s stronghold.
He defeated Koh Tsu Koon (right) in Tanjong parliamentary seat.
Perhaps, the lowest ebb of his political career was losing both the state seat (to Koh Tsu Koon in Tanjong Bungah) and Bukit Bendera parliamentary (to Chia Kwang Chye) in the same general election in 1999.
Lim did not fade away. In 2004, he made a comeback by ousting the MCA incumbent Thong Fah Chong in Ipoh Timor and the coattail effect helped M Kulasegaran to defeat Ho Cheong Sin in Ipoh Barat."
"Signal to the Chinese community
It would be a shame that no MCA strongman has the courage to face Lim in the MCA stronghold. It would be a mockery for MCA to get an Umno strongman to defend its own fortress.
What sort of signal the MCA would be sending to the Chinese community?
If the party needs the Umno to defend its stronghold, it undermines the raison d’etre of its existence..."
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