MGG Pillai Commentary View

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The BN arrogance sits comfortably on the MCA president's shoulders

The MCA President is not one who would defy the rules. He knows the rules. What are the rules? He says since the National Front (BN) chairman, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, agreed, the rules were followed. The MCA presidential council then met and lifted the suspension of two BN state assemblymen from the MCA. The BN president-to-be, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and the Penang BN chairman, Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon, were taken by surprise. He then informs Pak Lah, but not Tan Sri Koh, after the fact. He did not inform the BN secretary-general, Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat. He did not inform the BN supreme council of what he intended to do. In fact, he seems to have informed no one but the Prime Minister. This, in his view, is how a component of the BN behaves when it sets its house in order. He cannot understand the fuss. After all, he followed procedure.

Did he? The news report today (NST, 15 July 2003) quotes him as saying the MCA "sought the opinion of the BN leadership", including Dr Mahathir. Only Dr Mahathir it seems agreed with the lifting. If there had been others who agreed, he would have named them. He did not. He continues: "I briefed Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi this morning. He is agreeable to what the MCA is doing." Is this why Pak Lah, on his return from Japan, told reporters the MCA must follow the rules. Why, I wonder, did he say that when Dato' Seri Ong and MCA had indeed followed the rules? Has Pak Lah the same amnesia that occasionally afflicts Dr Mahathir at critical moments? Is Pak Lah lying? Is Tan Sri Koh?

So did he follow the rules. No. He should have formally submitted to the BN of his intentions. Doing so after the fact would not do. So what is his defence? He insists the same rules hold to reinstate as for suspending the duo. "I alone cannot go to the BN supreme council to ask for the duo's suspension to be lifted. The decision must first be made by the MCA," he thunders. He is wrong. The MCA presidential council decision should have been to ask the BN supreme council to lift the suspension. He forgets the two men are not MCA but BN state assemblymen. Whatever internal arrangements are made, it is the BN that takes ultimate responsibility. In any case, the BN had asked the MCA to decide. That did not mean it came with it the right to lift it without reference to the BN. The BN chairman cannot decide on behalf of the supreme council.

But one should not blame Dato' Seri Ong for what he did. That is how the BN, and the MCA, conducts its affairs: by riding roughshod over the rules. The leaders are deemed demi-gods, one defies or challenges at one's peril. Dato' Seri Ong would have got away with it last year, when the BN and MCA presidents were in total control. He could not now. The two state assemblymen were not the innocents they are portrayed as. They were pawns in an MCA brinkmanship to wrest the chief ministership from the Gerakan in Penang. And failed disastrously. Tan Sri Koh did not look kindly to this act of rebellion, the issue that sparked it is irrelevant, and if the perpetrator of that rebellion, Dato' Seri Ong's predecessor, Dato' Seri Ling Liong Sik, is no more, it does not mean that all is forgiven and forgotten. It is not. He took the brinkmanship a mite further to see if he could get away with it. But he misread the signals, and assumed he need not deal with those who come after Dr Mahathir retires in November.

Like President George W. Bush and the British prime minister, Mr Tony Blair, he bleats he did nothing wrong in how the MCA reinstated, and continues to defend it and upset his good intentions are misinterpreted. One can understand why he did it. He wanted to ensure MCA's high role in the MCA is maintained. But every move he has taken since is suspect. Pak Lah does not forget easily that it was he who threated to pull the MCA out of the BN, amidst the MCA leadership crisis when Dr Ling would not negotiate with Pak Lah. He has not resolved the split in the MCA. He has not made peace with Pak Lah, Tan Sri Koh, and showed him to be the amateur he is in his dealings with the BN supreme council.

Why then did the MCA presidential council take the law into its own hands? My MCA sources tell me that Dato' Seri Ong and his presidential council could not have had the suspensions lifted if the BN supreme council were to deal with it. The Gerakan could have objected, and that would have been a black eye too early in the day for the new MCA president. He had to reinstate the duo: if their suspensions held when general elections are held, now probably in the first half of 2004, the MCA could well have lost any claim for the two state constituencies. As defectors from the MCA, that was problematic. But suspension would shut the MCA's claim for them. If the BN supreme council does not reinstate the duo, and now the Gerakan veto is probable not possible, it looks now as if Dato' Seri Ong must run harder than ever, and still fall back.

The flux in the BN would continue until Pak Lah takes over in November. Would it stop then? I doubt it. Dr Mahathir destroyed the stability of UMNO by his autocratic and capricious governance, and that spread into the BN component parties. All BN party leaders fashioned themselves after him and turned autocratic. And as the UMNO ground slipped away, so did theirs. The MCA is no exception. I fear the MCA in deciding to select Dato' Seri Ong as president as UMNO selects Pak Lah has consigned itself to oblivion. No matter what he does, a large section in the MCA do not believe him. He cannot resolve fundamental differences by going on nationwide tours. He must address the issues headlong. He could start by insisting that the MCA delegates elect him when they next meet next year. That would at least give him the legitimacy within party to do as he plans. Could he win? Probably. He could well be challenged. When he stands as a candidate in the general elections, he would be challenged. So, why should he be afraid or a contest?

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