Monday, March 01, 2010

Analysing Tan Tee Beng's resignation from PKR

Malaysiakini’s news headlines Tee Beng quits PKR reported:

Nibong Tebal MP Tan Tee Beng today formally announced his resignation from PKR and is now an Independent.

However, he refused to confirm if he will be an ally to Barisan Nasional.

But he appealed to the federal government to release federal development allocations for his constituency, so that he can do his job in serving the people.

Asked how he would respond if BN expects his support in Parliament in return for the federal allocations, Tan said "these are two very different things which should not be linked".

I draw out two items from the above report:

Firstly, by appealing to the federal government to release federal development allocations for his constituency, he has finally admitted that allocations to MPs (as different from Penang ADUNs) should be from the Federal government and not the Penang State government.

In other words, he has by default also admitted that his accusatory attacks against Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for allegedly refusing to provide financial allocations for his Nibong Tebal federal constituency had been a mongrel misdirected malicious attack all along, that was, attacking Lim Guan Eng for no other reason than he wanted to attack Lim Guan Eng.

It probably was because Lim is DAP.

Secondly, note he hasn’t rejected the idea of joining BN or becoming a so-called ‘BN-friendly’ MP, like Hee is in the Perak State Assembly. But this post is not about Tan becoming a frog. If he does that, it won’t surprise me. After all, his family roots are in Gerakan-BN. His father Tan Ghim Hwa was the former Gerakan State Chairman, and known as the sworn enemy of the DAP.

Lim Kit Siang had in 1991 described Tan Ghim Hwa as a political vulture in a matter where phone threats were made against Lim, allegedly by some Gerakan Party members.

This post is more about Tan Junior's attack against CM Lim GE in particular and the DAP in general.

We can of course speculate that his background could have been a possible factor in his latent hostility towards the DAP and the son of Lim Kit Siang, and eventually brought to the boil after some disagreement with CM Lim. But let us not forget that he came from the Chinese section of PKR, led by (its de facto section leader wakakaka) Tian Chua.

In the lead up to March 2008, Tian Chua had realised that while the Malay (ex UMNO) bloc of PKR would electorally contest against UMNO, his Chinese section would have difficulty staking out ‘green pastures’ as the DAP had already been grazing on those plots for eons.

So it wasn’t strange that Tian Chua targeted the DAP rather than the MCA (or Gerakan) in the earlier days when Anwar Ibrahim and Lim Kit Siang were talking about PKR and DAP (and PAS) forming a loose pact to defeat the BN. Then PKR’s idea of so-called ‘negotiations’ with DAP had been to make press releases without DAP even knowing about (or agreeing to) the negotiations. Azmin Ali had been a notorious culprit in such media pre-emptive strikes against the DAP.

Given these two factors, I suppose one shouldn’t blame Tan Tee Beng for possessing such an invincible bias against the DAP and the Lim family. But one wonders at his political moral values for leaping out of PKR just after two years as an MP elected under the party's banner.

My uncle knows his father quite well. In the days when Dr Lim Chong Eu was wandering (like Moses) in the political wilderness, between the time of his resignation as MCA President to his co-founding of Gerakan Party with people like Professor Syed Hussein Alatas, Veerapan, Dr Wang and Tan Sri Dr Tan Chee Khoon, he formed his pre-Gerakan party called UDP (United Democratic Party) in Penang.


Then Tan Ghim Hwa joined him as a young UDP politician. Tan Senior's political baptism of fire was in a state by-election in my village Ayer Itam but he was defeated by MCA's Lim Kean Siew (formerly of Labour Party).

Tan Ghim Hwa was then a greenhorn pollie, and known as Mr Clean. My uncle was shocked when 25 to 30 years later Lim Kit Siang brought out the issue of alleged phone threats to his (Lim’s) safety, and Lim’s description of Tan Ghim Hwa as a ‘political vulture’.

Remember Tan Ghim Hwa's political allegiance metamorphosed as a member of a Gerakan Party against BN's predecessor (Perikatan or Alliance) to being a member of a Gerakan Party within BN.

Is this going to be a sad case of ‘like father, like son’?

But more importantly, the lessons from the actions of PKR people like Tan, Zahrain, Firaus, etc suggest that both federal and state seats in Penang should go to a party whose candidates will be least likely to jump the Pakatan ship.

7 comments:

  1. Did anyone notice most of the frogs are so call "veteran". It seems them afraid to miss BN pork barrel bandwagon. If they do this before next GE, it will hurt PR image badly.
    Now it give PKR plenties of time to weed out their liabilities.

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  2. It's clear that Tan Tee Beng's political career is over for good. He probably thought that the incredible reward that he was likely to get from UMNO & Co. would see him through his retirement. If he had remained, it is likely that they would not stand him in the next election: he hasn't been serving his constituency well (despite contrary noise from the government-controlled press), and his "commitment" to the Pakatan cause, of course, could be plainly seen for several months now. He wouldn't be standing for the next election anyway, but by following the evil path, he would at least be richer, perhaps much richer.

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  3. Never mind about Tan bugger motive or intention; but one thing is sure, the lowlife will be a one-term MP.

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  4. Close your eyes and let your mind conjure up this image: There's this big table laden with food, and around it sit all these Ketuanan Besar gorging on the food greedily. On the ground sits a pack of mangy, hungry dogs looking up with pleading eyes at the feasting Tuans, hoping that the Tuans would throw down an occasional crumb to them (for which they will fight each other viciously).

    You can see that these flea-bitten, desperate mongrels are willing and ready to do anything to get a crumb from the Tuan-tuan. This merely goes to show that these pathetic creatures have no self-respect, no pride, no maruah.

    Datuk Whackdabasterds

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  5. re: last para - by that reasoning, the seats in penang should technically go to pas :P :)

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  6. nat, I was actually waiting for someone to say just that ;-) and why not, but seriously speaking, look at the demographics, party record and the logical choice is clear!

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  7. Ktemoc,
    Don't bet on it. PAS went over to BN lock stock & barrel. Perhaps, Anwar Ibrahim must ask Lee Kuan Yew to come over to be Pakatan's advisor

    Why not Ktemoc? I would rather have a "dictatorial" Singapore like government. Know what Lee Kuan Yew has left Malaysia unfinished. Malaysia Solidarity Centre kenna abandoned.......To the dismay of Rajaratnam & Toh Chin Chye......(Read Men in Whites!)

    Anwar need to be like Lee Kuan Yew & not Lim Chong Eu navigating through trouble waters to greater success

    Anwar must choose the right lieutenants just as LKY chooses his during the early days.

    Guys,
    I strongly recommend everybody pick up the book called Men in Whites & study them......
    Of course, you can ask those astute DAP leaders. Lim Kit Siang is one of them

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