Once again we read of a potential parachutist in malaysiakini. But this time the person is from the MCA.
Victor Gu, a former ntv7 Mandarin news anchor as well as host of the popular game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (Chinese version), is another high profile bloke like Jeff Ooi. Jeff has just joined the DAP. And like Jeff, Victor is another party come-lately, having just joined the political party of his preference in early July 2007.
Needless to say MCA top leaders have been ecstatic with their star-quality catch while the mud-sloggers are mighty pissed off, because word has it that 30-year old Victor has been slated by Ong Ka Ting to contest the Damansara Utama state seat in the coming elections.
I blogged in Jeff Ooi - The challenge for the DAP about a political party’s dilemma, on how to balance the need of the party in choosing high profile parachutists as election candidates versus the equal need to consider the morale and continued support of the less well known loyal supporters who have sacrificed time and effort to the party and who expect selection themselves in due course.
In Victor Gu’s case, party sources revealed, hardly surprisingly, that some grassroots and youth leaders have voiced their unhappiness at Gu’s as-yet unannounced selection to contest Damansara Utama. Society normally doesn’t condone queue jumping, even when the party president has backed Gu’s candidature.
Ong’s reasoning is as I discussed in my previous posting, that the MCA needs high profile star quality young professional as candidates to compete with the DAP.
Well, Chinese are not known for being Hang Tuah-ish subservient to party leaders, so Ong's insistence on Victor Gu as the candidate may well be resisted and indeed sabotaged. One reason or excuse given by the grassroots is that an untested Gu may not be able to retain the seat which has been under MCA’s control since 1999 after wrestling it from the DAP.
Gu of course came out in damage control mode, blaming the media (most of the Chinese ones are generally linked to the MCA anyway) for spreading rumours about him and his entry into MCA.
malaysiakini reported him as insisting he had never received any offer from the party to contest in the elections.
He said: “Until now, I have not received any offer and hence, I never think about being a candidate.”
Take it from me, when a potential political candidate says that, assume the opposite.
Indeed he continued by saying that all PJ division members whom he met have warmly welcomed him into the party and "some even sent me text messages expressing their willingness to co-operate with me." ;-)
Then he added that MCA Youth chief Liow Tiong Lai had also attended the launch of MCA's public speaking youth speakers team, proving that MCA youth leaders were okay with him. Wow!
Well, Victor has learnt fast with his politico-speak. He is certainly politician material.
Reminder: While airborne troops have been used in daring tactical moves as shock troops, they have to be quickly relieved by the conventional ground forces such as infantry and armour, because they would be lightly armed and have minimum equipment.
Without expeditious backup they might be annihilated by the enemy troops after the shock entry. The story of ‘A Bridge Too Far’ by Cornelius Ryan provides a stark example of the British airborne debacle in WWII.
If the grassroots do not support Victor Gu as the candidate for the next election, Damansara Utama may well be a bridge too far for him and Ong Ka Ting.
I thought Damansara Utama is practically an MCA safe seat, these days ? It used to be a DAP stronghold, but the demographics have changed. Heavily Chinese majority seat, but these days mostly middle-class population.
ReplyDeleteThe middle class Chinese are among the most reliable BN voters now, even more than Malays.
Of course , a few more rounds of fiery keris-brandishing could change that quite seriously.
All political gimmick.OKT of MCA spoke so much about healthy political culture, and yet he practised differently.He appointed his brother as Sec-Gen of the party,then principal of MCA's School of Political studies,and later giving the brother a safe seat to contest in the general election.All this MCA's healthy political culture?I wonder.
ReplyDeleteVictor was personally picked by OKT and supported by CMY as a national political gimmick to attract young talented proffessionals to joined the party. Victor is currently actively participated in the political events funded by CMY in PJU as to giving him the opportunities to know the leaders/heads of the community in the area. In politic " Whom You Know " carry more weight than " what you know"..
ReplyDeletekk46, I was referring more to the possibility of enraged MCA grassroot 'mud-sloggers' sabotaging Gu's campaign and hence his election success, rather than the political proclivity of the constituency. Juicy adverse revelations of Gu, if any, can be damaging to his campaign.
ReplyDelete