But challenges do not come overnight. It breaks into the open after behind-the-scenes persuasion and reason fail. As the tempo rises, the president turns tetchy and irritated in public. Before long, hemmed in by pressures to step down, he turns on his attackers to cause another messy public conflict that devalues the party. BN party presidents are, by their appointments, autocratic, with powers to expel any who dare challenge them. Every political party in BN is threatened by it. So, the UMNO president steps in to defuse the public squabbling, and save the face of the incumbent. As now in MCA. The MCA deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek, had much support that if he had challenged the president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, as he intended, he may not have won, but it would have forced Dr Ling out of office, split the party and the Chinese community would move further away from it.

The MCA deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek, denies UMNO runs MCA, so he told Mingguan Malaysia yesterday (21 April 02). The MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, is confident, he could chart the independent course he could not before UMNO moved in. The UMNO president decided MCA could not manage its affairs, deputed his deputy president, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, to provide a temporary backbone for MCA so it would present a united front in the next general elections, possibly next year. But Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed does not know what he wants of the MCA, though he did read the Riot Act to both the Ling and Lim factions. First he wanted the MCA divisional elections and the Extraordinary general meeting suspended. Then he wanted the MCA divisional elections to go on but not the EGM. The Abdullah Badawi committee cannot decide. And all three await the return of Dr Mahathir in suspense, agony and trepidation.

When the Prime Minister's Department profers advise, it must be taken seriously as when a man with a loaded gun offers you a choice of "your money or your life". The editors fell in line without a whimper when it advised them to ignore the UMNO's takeover of the MCA and MCA's internal politics and politicking. For how long? The PMD would advise them when to. Press freedom in Malaysia includes the inalienable right to lose one job if one ignores official advise. So, not one newspaper or radio and television station reported it, and ignores developments in the MCA. The press blackout notwithstanding, all it showed is that MCA excels in shooting itself in the foot when faced with a crisis. The MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, insists of being returned as president, but his deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek, disagrees. In a country where politics is personal rather than of ideas or worldviews, that is enough to cause a political party to self-destruct.

The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, left yesterday (15 April 2002) for a week-long visit to Morocco, Libya and Bahrain, and returns the day after the MCA's extraordinary general meeting. He ordered the two factions in MCA -- that of the president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, and of the deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek -- to shut up. The MCA is lucky it is in the National Front (BN). If it was, like DAP, in the opposition, Malaysia's newspapers, radio and television would have gone to town to dismiss it as a party that has lost its way. As it would when PAS, Keadilan or DAP have a minor hiccup in one of its divisions. In the MCA's more serious split, the BN president can order the leaders to shut up and the two men's agreement to follow is seen as an excellent example of how democracy should be practiced in the BN, if not in Malaysia. And the country applauds him for it. At least I get the impression it does.

Visitors to Parliament are admitted on condition they do not speak to National Front (BN) MPs. MPs cannot ask questions in Parliament of ministerial salaries for that would put cabinet ministers in a spot, so highly paid they are that those who elected them should not know. Now, the Prime Minister orders MCA leaders to shut up so we would be ignorant of how divided MCA is. As usual, it was made as an aside, after he attended a charity golf function. "Can I make a statement," he asked reporters. "My statement is that no statement on MCA is to be made by anybody, including myself. That's all." If you want to know how serious the MCA crisis it, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed confirmed it. He said the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, and his "beloved friend" and deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek, agreed to the gag order.

For all we care, it is an outright forgery. It is tied up in some way with MCA's leadership crisis. The MCA's future hangs on the presidential fight between Dr Ling and his deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek. It split the Chinese community as nothing has in recent years. In no body of MCA representatives, within the party and without, is it now safe for Dr Ling to assume he is in control. One Lim Ah Lek man could scuttle whatever Dr Ling plans. So what happened to Tan Sri Tan, and his connexions to Dr Ling, is more important than a routine police inquiry.

He is defensive. The MCA is not about to work hard so a Gerakan state assemblyman could be returned. Besides, the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, has to take the lead in his nemesis, Dato' Lim Ah Lek's fief; one of his key lieutenants is MP for Bentong, of which Ketari is one state constituency. He is on his own. Pahang UMNO Youth has decided discretion is the better part of valour and would concentrate only on the Malay areas, which include Janda Baik and Genting Highlands, far removed from Ketari. The constituency is, to not put a fine point to it, gerrymandered. No one would admit to it. But look at the constituency boundary and you would know what I mean. So, Dr Lim believes attacking the DAP to retain the constituency for the Gerakan is good politics. It is not.

On the face of it, the BN should romp home easily. But it is in greater danger of losing it than in either of the past two byelections. The UMNO in Pahang would like the opposition to win this seat because it wants the arrogant mentri besar, Dato' Seri Adnan Yaakob, from the area, in his place. For the MCA, it is the area where the presidential challenger, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek, holds sway. But the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, must lead the campaign, as he had to in Lunas and Indera Kayangan. The MCA besides does not campaign as hard if the candidate is its arch government rival, Gerakan. The Gerakan itself has four candidates in mind, a lawyer, a doctor and two others with no academic qualifications but wide support. The candidate, especially if he is a professional, would find three key men in the party ranged against him. The Gerakan candidate can be returned if he can, against all odds, get half the Chinese and Malay vote. That is not certain, despite the advantage of incumbency.

The MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik's arrogant self-confidence is tattered. The absolute support he thought he had of the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed is not absolute any more. The Chinese community, worried that its voice is muted under Dr Ling, make their own deals with Dr Mahathir. The unkindest cut of all is Dr Mahathir's regular meetings with the forces of the MCA deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek. So, fresh from his problems over the MCA purchase of the Nanyang group of newspapers, one which landed the MCA with debt it cannot repay, he is forced to make the changes he would not because they came from the Lim Ah Lek faction.

The mentri besar, Dato' Seri Shahidan Kassim, is so injured by the political attacks that he threatens to sue one Keadilan man for tens of millions of ringgit for defamation. All these reflect internal uncertainties. The BN had to win: too many reputations and political careers are at stake if it had lost, though the huge MCA win only raised more doubts about the political future of its president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik: it now appears it awoke a sleeping giant; its deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek, could, it now appears, challenge him for the presidency. If he does, Dr Ling is even more on the defensive.

The Keadilan candidate, Mr Khoo Yang Chong, is aligned to Dr Ling's nemesis, Dato' Lim Ah Lek, is popular with, and active in, Chinese community groups, and the byelection also focusses on the near fratricidal nation-wide Chinese debate on politics and culture. A week into the campaign, the two candidates run neck-and-neck with even National Front assessors hedging their bets on who would be returned. Press reports of an easy victory and opposition confusion is to raise BN morale, not what is on the ground. In any case, the press, radio and television, government or BN-controlled, happily self-destruct at the hustings. It is no different in Indera Kayangan. Which is why it may fool those who do not vote, but not who do.

The MCA split is beyond repair. The president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, and his deputy, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek, lead the two factions so at odds that each looks to cut the other's wings at best it can. So in Indera Kayangan -- even if both agreed MCA should aim to be returned in Indera Kayangan and should set aside their differences for the duration. Forlonly, it turns out. All that happened is that it went underground. The MCA candidate is Mrs Oui Ah Lan, linked to Dr Ling and works in Dato' Seri Shahidan's office as a Chinese adviser. Dr Ling chose her and without consulting Dato' Seri Lim. In the straight fight, the opposition is from the Parti Keadilan Negara (National Justice Party or Keadilan), but its candidate, Mr Khoo Yang Chong, is ex-MCA and from the Lim faction. So, Indera Kayangan is an MCA turf battle. Worse, UMNO Perlis does not support her for her links to Dato' Seri Shahidan.

The Indera Kayangan by-election in Perlis on 19 January should be important only if the National Front loses. Nothing I have seen or heard suggest it would. But it is more. All the leaders, in government and opposition, can hope for is a superficial peace to tide them through the campaign. The MCA is split and the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, had to know the two rival chieftains -- the president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, and the deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek -- into a barely sustainable and superficial peace for the campaign. It would split open the minute after polling closes.

The deputy president, Lim Ah Lek, insists Ling should step down as he said he would but would then not. Ling disagreed, and moved to dissipate his critics. But they only grew stronger. What brought it to a head was his buying of the Nanyang Press Holdings and discussing it with his presidential council and central working committee as an afterthought, the one which broke the camel's back.

But that divided the party. The president and deputy president are barely on talking terms. Dr Ling, in fact, said he does not listen to his deputy any more, only when he wants to -- and he made clear he does not. He tries to neutralise Dato' Lim Ah Lek's faction by acting autocratically, justifying it by insisting he acts within the constitution. But his opponents strike a resonance within the community. The most prominent amongst them is the MCA vice president, Dato' Chua Jui Meng. With Dato' Lim having taken a backseat, he is the most prominent. The clash has reached a stage where Dr Ling cannot be allowed to be returned uncontested.

The MCA president, Ling Liong Sik, and his Talebans, have split the MCA in ways his predecessors could. His anger at the Lim Ah Lek faction for objecting to the MCA's pyrrhic purchase of Nanyang Press Holdings remains undimmed. Ling's anger is doubly compounded by his own ill-conceived threat to resign last year and then refusing to when the Prime Minister and UMNO president, Dr Mahathir Mohamed, wanted him to continue.

However inefficient TeLekom is, it brought in so much funds daily that it obviated the government's need to borrow from the banks for its current account expenditure. TeLekom is a listed company and about to sell RM1 billion in bonds to reduce its debt.

He and his deputy president, Dato' Lim Ah Lek, represent two factions; every statement from Dr Lim is challenged, not for the idea expressed but for misrepresentation. Dr Ling, for instance, said the central working committee had unanimously decided to form a constitutional review committee: Dato' Lim insisted it was not. Both, of course, were at the meeting. Dr Ling fouled his chances when he refused to resign as he promised his deputy president and the central working committee, stayed on at the UMNO president, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed's insistence. It is widely believed, though not necessarily true, Dr Ling bought Nanyang Press Group to deny a former Anwar backer, Tan Sri Quek Leng Chan, from owning a newspaper. It backfired. And puts MCA at risk.

Indah Water Konsortium Sdn Bhd, once run, and messed up, by that international business man of unquestioned repute, now employs debt-recovery agents to collect what it cannot. It went through several hands, each threatening its "customers" it did not have any contract with, threatening to have water cut off if sewage bills were not paid, and is now in the hands of the federal government. Sewage is a municipal service, which assessments take care of. Yet IWK, now owned by Ministry of Finance Incorporated, insists it must also be paid even if does not have a contract with you. If the government orders you to pay, as one IWK official told me bluntly, you should. I said if I need a telephone, I have to sign a contract with TeLekom Malaysia, for electricity with Tenaga Nasional, so if I need IWK service, I shall contact it.

This means something went awry. The licence itself was issued a year earlier for Dr Ling to announce it at a propritous time. In the light of the Nanyang Press blunder, and the corresponding pressures from the Chinese community, he brought out the letter which he had intended to release it to ensure his re-election next year. Because this is clouded in an MCA central committee rump led by the deputy president, Dato' Lim Ah Lek, challenging his every move, UTAR is right in the thick of internal MCA pressures.

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