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The MCA in the doldrums: Dr Ling resigns to win yet again

DATO' SERI LING LIONG SIK RESIGNED, at last, as MCA President on Friday, 23 May 2003, conceded nothing, 15 years after the National Front (BN) president wanted him out. He got all he wanted, his rivals nothing. His rival and deputy president, Dato' Seri Lim Ah Lek resigned with him. But the Lim faction stalwarts are left with the crumbs off the table, and as isolated from MCA councils as in the past three years. What he did is nothing new. MCA presidents have to dragged out, kicking and screaming. But he negotiated his own departured and left with his protege in charge, and his enemies routed. It was a brilliant palace coup.

This matter of if and when he should resign reduced the MCA to impotence for three years. It lasted this long because Dr Ling raised the ante, even daring at one stage to take the MCA out of the BN if he did not get his way. Dr Mahathir, having failed once when he tried to destroy Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, did not want to confront the MCA president. During this time, Dr Ling worked out a a plan to postpone elections till 2005, and when push came to shove, ensured his protege, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting, took over. If the president resigns or dies, the central committee appoints his successor. The Mahathir-appointed mediator, Tan Sri Lim Kok Wing, has mud all over his face. The MCA central committee just ignored him, and did what he wanted. Since it is controlled by Dr Ling, it did what Dr Ling wanted.

The Ling-Lim rift now drifts into a higher level. The deputy president is Dato' Chan Kong Choy, from the Lim faction, but he has no power and is as isolated as his faction leader, Dato' Seri Lim was. Dato' Seri Ong's first order of business kept in place all Ling appointments. This keeps the Lim faction out of party affairs. Dato' Chan should have joined the cabinet, but Dr Ling will not resign. Undated letters of resignations do not count. He must now categorically insist, in a few days, he cannot remain. Otherwise, the MCA can expect virulent times ahead.

Dr Mahathir is as confused as ever, talks vaguely, the only way he does these day, of a cabinet reshuffle. A cabinet reshuffle six months before he quits? In other words, nothing has changed. The Prime Minister and the BN party leaders react as always: in panic and only when forced to. But BN leaders were effusive with their compliments: How brilliantly MCA resolved its cris, what great leaders the two unknowns catapulted to the top of the greasy pole are, and the great epoch this opens in the MCA, how well will they serve the people, blah, blah, blah. Nothing BN leaders do, when forced to, is rated no less than Solomon's wisest decisions.

When you come to it, the emperor wears no clothes, and no one dares say so. The BN selects only flawed leaders. It is a matter of honour when the Anti-Corruption Agency investigates a BN leader. We do not know the results. Often it is proven. But since the ACA reports only to the Prime Minister, and he regards it as a state secret, the leaders can move with impunity. The police investigates Dato' Seri Ong's alleged connexions with the triads and has found, I understand, enough evidence to prosecute. So, Dr Ling's alleged selling of state secrets. (Let us not forget Dr Mahathir sacked his the prime minister-to-be, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, with Dato' Seri Rais Yatim, in 1987 not for aligning with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah's Semangat '46 but for revealing state secrets.)

One carrot for Dr Ling to leave is his request that his former protege, Dato' Soh Chee Wen discontinue his law suits against him, and the Attorney-General takes no further action on the state secrets matter. And Dato' Seri Ong to continue to rile and rout the Team B faction as he wills. When Dato' Seri Ong decided to maintain the Ling appointees, the main casualties were its rivals. The feud continues, and if Dato' Seri Ong takes a wrong step, to drain yet again MCA's cultural strength. But would this absolve the Singapore banks from acting against Dr Ling for the loans he guaranteed for his son?

Dr Ling proves his own dictum, that the head of the fish rots first. But in MCA, there is, on the ground, a remarkable transformation. They burrow into the ground with relish to put even the DAP to shame in its strongholds. The MCA ground is as strong as it ever was. But in one sense, it runs headless hither and thither, a formidable force on its own but which can turn against the MCA if it is not led from the top. What moves them is not the MCA per se but in the belief in their inherent cultural strength. For years, the MCA ignored this group. It still does, but it can do little to prevent it. They are now an important group in the MCA, there by their own conviction and once organised, a threat to the backroom politicians that run the MCA.

It is the new face of the young Malaysian Chinese, born and bred in Malaysia, with no thought to migration and no reason why he should be second class. A similar Indian group, though outside the BN's Indian party, the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), makes waves amongst the Indian political establishment. This belief that politics begins at the top of the greasy pole is challenged. If the MCA and the MIC thinks that this ground support for its cause is permanent no matter what their leaders do, they are in for a shock.

The MCA proved how easy it is for BN parties to have leaders hated on the ground. Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is the UMNO president-to-be because Dr Mahathir wanted him, and all rivals were told to stay clear or face their bank managers. That there is more talk now than ever he would be challenged has his advisers rushing to prevent it. It is fear not political debate and campaign that installs BN party leaders. The MIC leader, Dato' Seri S. Samy Vellu, made MIC politics beholden to him and insists only his writ runs. He is in for a surprise. He wants to retire after 30 years as MIC leader, as if that is a credit to the Indian community. But Pak Lah, for his own security of tenure, must remove him from his cabinet. There are small groups within the Indian community that challenges this, so large enough so MIC is worried, but significant enough for it to be in a few years.

How he conducted the recent MIC elections is no different, when you come down to it, than how UMNO, MCA, Gerakan and others conduct theirs. At a time when Dr Mahathir should be at his strongest, preparing to retire after 21 years at the helm, he is, paradoxically, at his weakest. He leaves behind a political legacy that is wounded beyond repair, stabbed by his super-crony, and all he aimed for in ashes. It is too late to turn back the clock. The system must collapse from within. Though that is a few years off. The Opposition has not risen to the Opposition, and charted its own course. How the new MCA president was selected is one more nail in the coffin. Dr Ling sleight of hand may help him a while, but it is the MCA that is in sheer trouble.

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