Can Viagra-ed MCA stand up again?

We know looes74, don't we? I'm kinda fond of him, or at least his behind wakakaka, not to do what you might be thinking about but to kick it for his anarchic proclivity to rebel, resist and (I fear) revolt, and to insist through insults that I follow him recklessly, wakakaka.

He has more than once accused me of having a soft spot for Najib Razak, perhaps because (a) I am seen by him (looes74) as being more anti Anwar Ibrahim than anti Najib, wakakaka, and (b) I tend to stress on democratic process in my posts such as being virulently against frogology, wakakaka, much to his irreverent insurgent ire and insistent indolent impatience.

Well, I'll give him another occasion to so libel me by saying that Najib had been spot on yesterday in his opening address at the MCA’s 60th AGM when he told the mob there:

“You have the men, you have the army, but the will is not there. As the saying goes, the flesh is strong but the spirit is weak. We probably need to get some political Viagra to get some spirit back.”

I am not sure whether Najib's mention of MCA needing political 'Viagra' could have been a tongue-in-cheek repartee directed specifically at Chua Soi Lek (CSL), wakakaka, for the latter's useless (in timing) swipe at the UMNO-led government's pro-bumi policies.

Mind you, what CSL said was absolutely correct (for example, the pro-bumi policies and NEP should be needs-based rather than indiscriminately skin or party-based), though it was uselessly way way too late, more so as a supposedly farewell shot by a lame duck MCA leader.

Note above underlining of 'supposedly' above - I'll return to it later.

But prior to mentioning the new MCA leadership lineup, I want to stress here that they have been voted into party office NOT by the Chinese community but by a select group of 2332 MCA delegates.

Thus it's all an internal MCA party cozy outcome which doesn't reflect the desires of the Chinese Malaysian community, and thus won't indicate that new party president Liow Tiong Lai is popular with the community, in fact not even within the MCA when he only secured 1186 votes, just a mere 186 votes ahead of contender Gan Ping Sieu.

And I'll have more to say about the word 'cozy' later.

Incidentally in GE-13, Liow had a narrow escape when he managed to scrape through as the elected candidate for Bentong by a majority of only 379 over Wong Tack of DAP. A total of 52,627 votes were cast in that federal parliamentary constituency.

Just to reiterate that the party election of Liow Tiong Lai as the new MCA party president is probably NOT a leader the Chinese Malaysian community would prefer to have, I refer you to a Merdeka Centre poll conducted in 2010 which found that Ong Tee Keat was chosen by Chinese public (not MCA delegates) over Ong Ka Ting and Chua Soi Lek to be the MCA President to politically represent them.

In that public poll Chua Soi Lek emerged last, but thanks to the MCA delegates, he nonetheless became the MCA president, which then saw him positioning MCA in the party's notorious shameless ball-less retreat in GE-13.

Oh, and how many votes did Ong Tee Keat obtain from his presidential candidature yesterday?

160 votes!

That's from a total number of 2332 attending-voting delegates.

And quite a few Chinese Malaysians opine that Ong TK is the MCA leader who probably has the best reputation, credibility and persona among Chinese Malaysians, and the one most likely to resuscitate a moribund MCA and lead it back to political viability and respectability by GE-14.

But alas, it's obvious (a) he doesn't enjoy support from the MCA delegates and (b) the far stronger factor, he is disliked by UMNO, unlike Liow Tiong Lai who refers to Najib as 'my beloved PM', wakakaka.

In 2010 I had written on the declining political career of Ong TK as follows:

Ong Tee Keat was in deep trouble when Najib refused to attend the MCA AGM as the traditionally principal guest of honour (in his capacity as Head of the BN coalition) to open the meeting for its ally – see Malaysiakini’s Najib will not attend disputed MCA AGM.

Najib’s decision is unprecedented and unequivocally blatantly anti Ong Tee Keat as the president of MCA, as had been his attending the opening of Makkal Sakthi an anti MIC snub.

One way or another, UMNO has and is showing it can control MCA, MIC, especially Gerakan, etc. While there has been bad blood between Ong and Chua as well as Liow, the lamentable observation is there are MCA leaders who are prepared to play to UMNO’s tune, to remove Ong Tee Keat.

Why do I say this, because for quite some time now, DPM Muhyiddin has indicated in many ways his displeasure with Ong through his (Muhyiddin's) attempt to galvanise MCA into another/early party election.

It was then obvious that UMNO preferred Liow, who had lovingly described Najib as 'our beloved PM' wakakaka what a Raja Bodek! – see my post Najib and Muhyiddin fighting for Liow Tiong Lai.

As to why UMNO doesn't like Ong TK, please read my posts:

(a) Why Ong Tee Keat is worth supporting and saving!

(b) UMNO prefers Ong Tee Keat out?

Thus my mention of UMNO's preference as a significant vital factor in the election of MCA's party president has not been amiss when we consider again the sentence 'One way or another, UMNO has and is showing it can control MCA, MIC, especially Gerakan, etc' as well as my above post UMNO prefers Ong Tee Keat out?

Let's leave Ong TK to his own future and ask ourselves what will MCA's political future be now that it has a new party president in Liow TL?

If we read The MalayMail Online's MCA’s reforms hollow without Umno’s where political analysts said: MCA is unlikely to succeed with planned reforms to win back the Chinese community so long as Barisan Nasional lynchpin Umno continues to thrive on communal politics.

Two principal factors militate against UMNO changing from its current right wing communal politics, these being:

(a) as a party by itself, UMNO has emerged even stronger than before (post GE-12), notwithstanding the chipping away of BN's previous stranglehold on its parliamentary majority, so fuck the non-UMNO world especially those who haven't contributed to, or is perceived as unlikely to contribute to BN's strength, and

(b) Liow Yiong Lai is UMNO's preferred MCA president precisely for the reason he is known to be a 'yes-man' to UMNO, one who dares not rock the BN or UMNO boat, unlike Ong Tee Keat.

As Professor James Chin, a political analyst with Monash University, told The Malay Mail Online on 21 Dec 2013:

“The [MCA] reform would only go as internal party reform and not government policies. You can see, the Chinese have completely abandoned MCA. There’s no point for reform.”

“The MCA polls is not about reform. It is about who is the successor to Soi Lek. Nothing more than that”.

Prof Chin alluded to the MCA's leadership candidates being more interested in the control of the billions of ringgit in assets and shares, including Malaysia’s best-selling English language newspaper, The Star, than their professed intention to reform.

The MCA situation is not unlike siblings squabbling over their individual share of a dead daddy's fortune instead of mourning their lost daddy. And that could be why a majority of the party's delegates voted for blokes like CSL or Liow Tiong Lai.

Now, could this explain the word I used earlier, to wit, 'cozy'?

Prof Chin crushed any hopes of a new Viagra-ed (wakakaka) MCA becoming politically meaningful for Chinese Malaysians when he stated:

"Both Liow and his running mate Wee are part of the group that led MCA to its crushing defeat in the 2008 general election. They can reform internally but the future of MCA is not dependent on internal party issues but on how the Chinese perceived them."

"No matter what they do, if the public still consider you as being unable to represent them, then it won't make much difference."

Okay, finally let's return to what I meant by CSL's supposedly farewell shot at UMNO for the latter's pro-bumi policies, one which aids Malays indiscriminately based on their ethnicity or more correctly, party membership, rather than their real needs.

If we look at the new MCA lineup, TMI tells us that:

The four vice-president spots were swept by two leaders each from factions aligned with former president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek and Liow.

Chua's son Tee Yong and Kampar division chief Datuk Lee Chee Leong clinched two of the posts. [...]

Chua Junior

As for the 25 central committee (CC) posts, 11 leaders aligned with Chua made it through, while 10 are from Liow's camp.

The remaining four might be from either Chua’s or Liow’s camps, although their names were not listed in the peace deal.

The peace deal was hatched between Chua and Liow a few weeks ago to ensure a smooth leadership transition after the 64-year-old party was rocked by bickering between the two leaders a few months ago.

Under the deal, Liow and Wee were to be the party's number one and two, while two leaders each from Chua and Liow's camp would be vice-presidents. The result indicates that the deal worked out as planned, including having the desired VPs from both camps.

As for the CC, Chua's camp would get 13 members and Liow’s faction, 12.

We can see that CSL is still very much in a position of considerable power in MCA.

Maybe Najib had been only half right, that only half of MCA's leadership needs Viagra, wakakaka!

Hope my matey looes74 would be consoled by this concession, wakakaka.

not unlike Viagra for MCA, wakakaka