The Malaysian Bar - A master move

OCT 12 — The just-concluded MCA EGM was a lesson in the Art of Politics.

The results were probably unexpected to most of us common folks, but not to the strategist/s behind the so-called “third force”.

When two factions are almost equally matched, as all indications showed; a strategically planned and galvanised small third force can do wonders, and that was what happened.

Most of us thought that given the equally matched opposing factions, no one would be able to galvanise a third force to throw the two respective leaders of the warring factions out.

But this was what actually happened. Someone behind the scene galvanised a small force of 30-50 delegates. By voting as a bloc, and voting one way for the first resolution, another way for the second resolution and yet another for the third resolution, this small group of 30 to 50 members succeeded in bringing down two big elephants.

Whoever is behind this is a (are) master strategist(s).

This is the result best suited to the Big Brother. Is the Big Brother behind this/these master strategist/s? We will probably never know.

MCA is an important link in BN. If either Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat or Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek won , the party would be split. A badly split MCA would not be able to win back the lost Chinese votes.

On the contrary, given the history of leg pulling in the past, a split MCA could lose whatever little support it still has among the Chinese voters. At the moment, 80 per cent of the Chinese votes are with the other side, but with the party badly split, it would lose a big portion of the remaining 20 per cent too.

So it is to the advantage of the Big Brother to have a totally new leader, hoping that this new leader can help to patch up the two factions.

A more united party might be able to win back a certain percentage of support of the Chinese, so the thinking goes. It would have appeared so, but in truth, this might not happen, given the sentiments prevailing among the Chinese community. But if I am the big brother, I would certainly follow this line of thinking.

Coming back to the EGM results, I think it would be honourable for the whole central committee (CC) to resign, since the suspension of Dr Chua was a collective CC decision. I think it will be proper ethically to call for a fresh election.

Ong was quoted in the Chinese press as saying that “the sun rises and the sun sets”. Using the analogy, he told reporters that when he assumed the top position, he already knew that one day he has to come down. I think that should be the way of any leader. A leader must know when it is time for him to go up, and when it is time for him to come down.

Unfortunately, a leader with a scandalous past did not see it that way, and by not knowing when to give up, indirectly precipitated his own suspension, and brought the party to such a stage.

With this disarray in MCA and the growing irrelevance of MIC, I see that a lot of uncertainty has been injected into the political scene, and who knows, a realignment of forces may happen sooner than most of us would think possible. — hsudarren.wordpress.com