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The MCA president and the blossoming iron tree

THE NEW MCA PRESIDENT, DATO' SERI ONG Ka Ting, would not trust his members to elect him to the post. His predecessor, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, wanted a poodle to succeed him; the party did not. He moved heaven and earth to ensure it. Dato' Seri Ong, comfortable in his post until 2005, now claims MCA members are mature, and "fed up" of talk of electoral contests in MCA. Talking with his usual forked tongue, he says MCA members know what is best for the party. Which no doubt is why he did not want them to vote the new president in. If he believes in what he says, he ought to present himself to the "mature" members to affirm his appointment at the next MCA congress. By no stretch of imagination is he appointed with party-wide approval. He was appointed in a horse-trade in which the members had no say. The party rules allows that as equal to being elected, another of those innovations MCA presidents introduced so that entrenched leaders could not be overthrown.

Both he and his appointed deputy president, Dato' Chan Kong Choy, worry about the bored reactions to their appointment, and now rush to paper the cracks. The party split is papered over, not resolved, and could shake its foundations yet again. The MCA secretary-general, Tan Sri Ting Chew Peh, came with a plan to gladden the hearts of those who oppose the cabal that now runs the MCA. The president and deputy president now put their oars in. The president's men now talk of the inherent unity, why it should not be disrupted with unseemly talk of party elections three years hence. But is the party split sewed up with Dato' Seri Ling's departure? Not by any means. Dato' Seri Ong heightend it when he made no changes to the party heirarchy, which therefore did not address the party's Team B's confrontation with Dr Ling's Team A. Those who opposed Team B remain in office, and those in Team B stay out. In other words, nothing has changed.

That the two top leaders harp on internal rivalries and how it could drain votes in a general election only shows that the divisions are as serious as it was when it was all over the newspapers. If this is all Dato' Seri Ong and Dato' Chan can talk about, when other pressing issues need to be addressed, it reflects on both his vision and his commitment. He and Dato' Chan are, it would appear, only interested in their posts, not what they stand for. You would notice it is only those secure in their positions who ask others not to be selfish.

It does not matter if it is UMNO, MCA, MIC, PPP, DAP, whatever: once in office, the leaders call for selfless help, and not look to office as a reward. If indeed they believe it, why do they not resign after a few years, instead of being forced out. Malaysian political party presidents consider their appointment as life-long. The UMNO president is in office for 22 years, the MCA president resigned after 17 years, The Gerakan president was appointed in 1979, the MIC president a year earlier, the DAP secretary-general held office for about 30 years. None would, or did, give up their office willingly. In every case, the party has became irrelevant in the national arena. So, how are they elected: It is a form of Buggin's turn: you move up the ladder, wait your turn patiently, and then slip in, usually without being elected. It is incumbent, of course, that one does not rock the boat, so that when he is appointed president, he has leart the art of saying nothing, doing nothing, and thinking of nothing except to hold on to office at whatever cost. Every UMNO president but the first is elected that way, and so in almost every political party.

It is personalities, not policies, that matter in Malaysia. The president sets out his priorities, calls for self-less service, and then spends the rest of his term eating his words and telling the world the great statesman he is. If those who believed in him challenge him, the whole weight of the party is brought to bear to destroy the "traitors". But is that why men and women join political parties? Malaysian political parties, all but a few, are there to pay homage to their leader, not to work for an ideal or political direction. It is money and power that governs them. Rarely is a president elected by the members: the new UMNO president is not elected in his own right. He was appointed, then the rules fudged that no would challenge him. The other political parties take that as a cue and do likewise.

But the days of changing the guard without the consent of members is challenged. UMNO had its crisis when its deputy president was sacked, beaten up and jailed. It reacts to that as settlers forming a circle with all their possessions against marauding Red Indians. It is not as serious in other parties, but rumbles can be heard. All political parties, in government and opposition, in the peninsula and in Sabah and Sarawak, ignore this crisis to come. When it does, as in Sabah in 1985, confusion and chaos results. What is worse is that in no political party is serious intellectual discussions are allowed, in private or in public, of its policies and future. The leaders are afraid to be upstaged, those with ideas quickly sidelined. In Malaysian political parties, as a rule, only the president has all the answers; those who disagree are expelled. But many presidents would deem it an insult to their sanity if you asked them what books they regularly read: many would not know where to look for good books to read, not that they would be keen to find out.

The relative political stability we have seen in Malaysia is due to the dominance of UMNO in national affairs. But UMNO, instead of continually renewing itself, took that as proof of its popularity, that what it did is not only right but also unchallengeable. Any threats to its control is dismissed cavalierly with detentions under the Internal Security Act or other less onerous methods like having critics dismissed or made bankrupts. It worked so long as no one would challenge UMNO's hegemonic influence on the Malay community. UMNO after all was a movement that led the country to independence, and those who challenged it faced oblivion. Though not any more.

When in 1987, the UMNO president, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, allowed UMNO to be dissolved, and another formed in its wake, it became a mere political party, and not as dominant as the one dissolved. But UMNO behaved as if nothing had changed. When 11 years later, its deputy president, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, challenged his dismissal, he had more support than he had imagined. The historical link had snapped. Now we can live with an UMNO in opposition, and not be unduly bothered about it. Indeed, it already is - in Kelantan and Trengganu - and could possibly in one or two more states after the next general elections.

UMNO would not change. The other political parties find no need to. And this virus spread with abandon into the Opposition political parties. The political crisis that will come in the future is the role parties will play in national policy. This means necessarily that they must merge to safeguard their communal or other interests. The present structure does not permit it. When UMNO encouraged the Gerakan to put a brake on MCA's belief that it alone represents the Chinese community in the National Front (BN), it allowed other groups to splinter. The MIC, for instance, faces two political parties - the PPP and the IPF - for an ever declining share of the Indian vote. No one has thought through if a multiracial country half a century into independence must have distinctly racial parties to represent the communities.

It is in UMNO's interest to hold on to this racial inequities. But the younger Malaysian, not caught up in the racial politics of his elders, looks at it differently. It does not matter if he is Chinese, Indian, Malay, Dayak or Kadazan, he is a Malaysian, and read to voice his views outside the racial prism of his parents. Only three political parties in Malaysia look at it this way: Parti Rakyat Malaysia, Parti Socialis Malaysia, Parti KeADILan Nasional. That they do not have more support than it has shows how insiduously successful UMNO's racial policies have succeed. But it is no surprise that UMNO fears KeADILan, more than PAS. Which accounts why they have been so harsh on its leaders: the Reformasi 6 went to Kamunting so UMNO could stop KeADILan in its tracks. Not that it worked as well as it hoped.

Into this political realignment to come, Dato' Seri Ong and his ilk are irrelevant. He rushes hither and thither to strengthen his post up a swaying greasy pole and shaken badly by his constituents. If Dato' Seri Ong means what he says, he ought to do more than make fatuous statements of what must be. He should garner his party's intellectuals and elders to discuss what must be done, and surprise everyone by heeding what they say. Would he dare? Would an iron tree blossom?

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