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The MCA President Has No More Tales To Spin

THE MALAYSIAN COURTS HAVE DECLARED that undated letters of resignation every National Front (BN) candidate signs on selection is invalid. Yet, the MCA President, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, who knows this only too well, now springs yet another surprise: that contrary to the widely held view that he wants to cling on to office, he sent an undated letter of resignation on August 15 to the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed last August, but it is Dr Mahathir who has yet to act on it. No one in MCA knew of it. He took neither the MCA Presidential Council nor the MCA Central Executive Committee into his confidence, on his considered view that he is the MCA and MCA he. If he was so intent on resigning from the Cabinet, why did he undate it? Was he using this as a lever to make the Chinese community believe that Dr Mahathir is a dictator wanting to destroy the paragon of the Chinese community? Why did he not then resign as MCA President? He could not have remained MCA president once he resigned from the Cabinet. The most charitable explanation is that it was yet another attempt to paint Dr Mahathir into a corner.

He sent in his undated resignation letter two days after Universiti Tengku Abdul Rahman was launched on 13 August 2002. He stayed on, wanting to be around for the ground-breaking of its campus in Kampar on 12 January. But Dr Mahathir, after the recent BN supreme council meeting, said Dr Ling had submitted his resignation, and the MCA deputy president, Dato' Lim Ah Lek, said he would challenge Dr Ling for the MCA presidency in 2005, Dr Ling's options ran out. When the business man, Dato' Soh Chee Wen, whose former business parter is Dr Ling's son, on trial for offences connected with the abrupt rise (and fall) of Dr Ling's son, Ling Hee Leong, his days were numbered. His time began to run out, when the MCA-owned Nanyang Siang Pau newspaper reported in October that his visit to China and India was his last before he retired. But Dr Ling believes he can force Dr Mahathir to let him remain.

Indeed, the Prime Minister soured of Dr Ling in 1988, two years into his MCA presidency, and wanted him to leave. But he stayed on for another 14 years, for no reason than that UMNO and its president then was in turmoil and shock. He cashed in on that, forcing Dr Mahathir to give in to him to save his skin, and at one time negotiating with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, then the leader of the breakaway UMNO faction, Semangat '46, to openly challenge Dr Mahathir and UMNO. The Sabah BN parties were also brought into the plot, the late Prime Minister, Tengku Abdul Rahman, even persuading the Sarawak chief minister, Dato' Pattingi Abdul Taib Mahmud, to join the new grouping. The MCA even lobbied with the Chinese parties in Sabah and Sarawak. But no one was prepared to bell the cat. The one unpredictable in this plotting was if Dr Mahathir would declare a state of emergency and the ISA to stop them in their tracks. That stopped them in their tracks. When Dr Mahathir had his coronary bypass surgery in 1989, Dr Ling broke ranks and came to his support. Dr Mahathir all but destroyed Semangat '46 when a few days before the general elections, he accused Tengku Razaleigh of wearing a Kadazan headdress with a Christian Cross -- it was not -- but the propaganda worked.

And so Dr Ling extended his stay in the Cabinet, and as MCA President. Every time, Dr Mahathir wanted him to leave, an UMNO crisis made him not to insist. The last five years, after the destruction of the then deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and with UMNO in turmoil, Dr Mahathir was reluctant to force a leadership change in the MCA. The 2000 general elections revealed the sharp divisions within the Malay community even more dramatically, and Dr Mahathir was unwilling to interfere in parties like the MCA and MIC, both of whose presidents have remained well beyond their sell-by date. The split in the MCA ranks arose from Dr Ling's special links with Dr Mahathir. But even that is coming to an end. Dr Ling is not in good odour with the Prime Minister-to-be, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. He has only till the year-end, when he must go.

The pressure comes from other UMNO leaders as well. As it once happened. In 1988, when the MCA cabinet minister, Dato' Seri Chan Siang Sum, died. He was the MP for Bentong. The MCA had proposed Dato' Chan Kong Choy as the candidate in the by-election. But the Sultan of Pahang insisted it should be Dato' Lim Ah Lek, then a state executive councillor in the state. He was returned. The MCA then proposed the deputy minister, Dato' Kok Wee Kiat, be promoted to Dato' Seri Chan's portfolio. But UMNO wanted Dato' Lim, and like the foreign minister, Dato' Seri Syed Hamid Albar, was appointed to the cabinet without first holding junior posts in the government. So, when the mentri besar of Pahang offered Dato' Lim the choice of three Chinese majority parliamentary constituencies in the next general elections, it was proof enough that even the state BN leaders are wary of Dr Ling.

There is one final worry. The Ling holdouts in the MCA, 32 of the 40 members of CEC, threaten to resign en masse should Dato' Lim become MCA President. Under the rules, an extraordinary general meeting must be called to re-elect a new committee. But this is easier said than done. Already the Ling ranks disintegrate. Dato' Lim has been inundated with calls of support from the Ling supporters, more concerned with their future than on principle. If Dr Ling were to issue an order his backers to resign en masse from the CEC, it would surprise everyone if more than a handful obeyed. As Dr Mahathir now finds out, support for a dying King would disappear soon enough once the dauphin is known. Dr Ling tries to stay on in office by using the strong arm methods Dr Mahathir adopts, but he forgot there is a huge difference between a fire and a fire-fly.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my