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The MCA President vows to cling on by the skin of his teeth

MALAYSIAN POLITICS BECOMES unusually active when a political party had a crisis, usually when a party president decides he need to stay on because he has failed and must now be given time to succeed. It does not matter which political party, but it provides Malaysians with the comic relief they cannot often get on their television screens. It is the MCA which now provides it. A decade and a half ago, the then deputy prime minister, Tan Sri Musa Hitam resigned as deputy prime minister but not as UMNO deputy president, a decade and a half ago, when he had a falling out with the prime minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed. Now it is the MCA president, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, to prove lightning strikes twice in the same place. He has stayed too long in office that he is more a liability to the MCA. As pressure mounts on him, he does a Musa Hitam: he offers to resign as transport minister, but not as MCA president, which he will hold on, until the MCA succession is settled.

What he does not say is the succession is settled. Under the party constitution, should he resigns, the deputy president, Dato' Lim Ah Lek, takes over. Dr Ling's plan for a settled succession is for one of his cronies to take over. For the issue in the MCA for the past few years is just that: Dr Ling is a drag on the party, has stayed on too long, and should give way to his deputy. Many creative plans have been hatched for an orderly succession, even for both Dr Ling and Dato' Lim to step down, but scuppered when Dr Ling brought upon the forces of deux et machina in the form of the UMNO's president, Dr Mahathir, or the Universiti Tengku Abdul Rahman. He wants to stay on at whatever cost, and does what he can to ensure it. So, when Dato' Lim abrogated his plans to retire to insist he would challenge Dr Ling for the MCA presidency in 2005, Dr Ling countered with his resignation, tendered, so we are told, in August 2002, without the party knowing anything about it. As usual, his deux et machina this time is Dr Mahathir himself. He has not the time, he tells the world blithely, to consider it. If a simple matter as a cabinet resignation causes him to ponder for five months and not take a decision, then something is surely wrong with his governance.

Dr Mahathir plays his own games. He does everything possible to leave a pile of unresolved business when he retired eventually at the end of the year. The new prime minister, at least it is he who would in normal circumstances succeed, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, is then left with all the problems he should have dealt with. Dr Mahathir, at the same, is preoccupied with declining support for UMNO, and has to depend on the non-Malay parties in the peninsula and the Sarawak and Sabah BN parties to sweep the National Front (BN) into power. He does not want to change horses in mid-stream, and come what may, would rather keep the rascals he knows than the savants he is unsure of. The last thing he wants is to have a coalition leaders who wants to bring his racial political group to an equilibrium with UMNO on the basis of an equality it does not now have.

So it is music to his ears when Dr Ling insists on continuing, and Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, wants to complete three decades in office as MIC president before he retires. The prime minister vaccilates. He wanted Dr Ling to go. The Soh Chee Wen trial was the pressure point. When Dato' Soh's lawyers subpoenaed Dr Ling, his wife, son and daughter-in-law, it was to have been the coup de grace. Instead, the case itself drags on now, and the expected disgrace is a long while yet. Like Dato' Seri Samy Vellu, Dr Ling says he cannot step down because there are unresolved matters. "I cannot say I want to go tomorrow when I haven't completed a lot of things. So that's meaning. I am not saying when (to step down)." But when asked if he would not resign as transport minister since Dr Mahathir had not decided on it, he declined comment. In other words, the possibility exists he would stay if the Prime Minister decided not to accept it.

Dr Mahathir's problem is he is unsure what would happen should Dato' Lim succeed Dr Ling now. Much as Dato' Lim promises to act in a manner the MCA would remain subservient to UMNO, there is still uncertainty on how the MCA would react. The last thing UMNO wants is a revitalised MCA which demands an accounting and more discussion on policies that Dr Ling, when it did not affect his position and status, was prepared to act against the community's interest. The fear is Dato' Lim might not. And Dr Mahathir does not want to test that so long as he is in office. For what is not known, or revealed, is that the infighting within UMNO is at fever pitch, with the vice-presidents making deals with the opposition PAS to knock off the others, and their supporters maligning the other vice presidents with impunity in the coffee stalls in Bangsar and in hotel restaurants.

UMNO's own future is at stake. Dr Mahathir, on the last legs of his 21 years at the helm, is disinterested. He is tired, worried, about his place in history and how his children, cronies and others would be treated by an incoming UMNO-led government. He has cried wolf too often, and no one listens to him any more. Even in the Islamic world. Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, due to visit Malaysia in mid-December, cancelled his visit to Malaysia days before it was due, more in huff than for any other reason, and to conceal his embarrassent, Dr Mahathir leaves unexpected for an unscheduled visit to Japan. So, when someone like Dr Ling defers to him, he has no choice but to reciprocate. But is this how a country should be run? Meanwhile, all Dr Ling can do, in the meanwhile, is to cling to his office by the skin of his teeth and basking in the crumbling shadow of a prime minister in his dotage.

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