Political Mavericks

Malaysiakini - Maverick DAP rep asks why party impatient to get rid of him (extracts):

Teh Yee Cheu

Maverick DAP Tanjung Bungah assemblyperson Teh Yee Cheu broke his silence and questioned why his party was apparently impatient to get rid of him by barring him from being involved in flood aid in his state constituency.

Teh said he has not joined another political party and is still a DAP member and assemblyperson. [...]

Teh expressed disappointment that a senior DAP leader ran him down in the state newsletter Buletin Mutiara.

"Now you condemn me and say bad things about me. Aren't you just playing politics?" he asked.

"You say I might be a risk. What kind of risk do I pose? You mean I can sabotage the whole thing? How can I do that?

"If I want to sabotage (DAP), I do not need to announce in advance that I want to leave the party."

On Dec 14, DAP Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari revealed that Teh was barred from approving the registration of flood victims which will entitle them the state's RM700 in financial aid. [...]

On why the two-term elected representative was barred, Zairil said this was due to Teh issuing a few negative statements to the press.

"He had publicly announced that he’s leaving DAP and that also means he's leaving the Pakatan Harapan state government. So, when there's uncertainty, do you take the risk?" Zairil was quoted as saying in Buletin Mutiara.

Political parties do not like go-it-alone mavericks, no matter how good or people-oriented these mavericks might be. So Zairil Khir has not been wrong in describing Teh as a possible 'risk' to the DAP.

And that's the specific and not just a general rule, but with one sole exception. Wakakaka, as in everything, there is always an exception (and sometimes disparagingly called a 'freak' or an aberration).

That exception is one where that maverick is so popular with the voters the party would be foolish to expel or marginalise him or her, or even allow him/her to leave the party. Examples would be Lim Chong Eu, Anwar Ibrahim and not-so-much-as-a-maverick as someone who didn't get along with the party's state top leaders, Fong Po Kuan, MP for Batu Gajah from 1999 to 2013.

Many do not realise that Lim Chong Eu was once the President of MCA. He left on his own accord after having a dispute with Tunku (UMNO) on MCA's fair allocation of federal seats for an election. He was succeeded by Tan Siew Sin as MCA President.

Wikipedia tells us: In the March 1958 Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) party elections, he challenged Tun Tan Cheng Lock and won the presidency with a majority of 22 votes.

kt note: Tan Cheng Lock was the father of Tan Siew Sin

During the one-year period when the MCA was under Lim, the party came under tremendous pressure from within and outside. After his victory, he called an extraordinary general meeting to amend the Constitution to consolidate the power of the Central Committee. This was met with strong resistance by Tun Tan Siew Sin and his supporters. Although the proposal was passed with a single-vote majority, the move left the Party split.

At the same time, the MCA under Lim also had severe political differences with the then Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. The crisis worsened on the eve of the 1959 general elections when Lim demanded 40 parliamentary seats and also wanted to make Chinese an official language. The Tunku increased the seats allocated to MCA from 28 to 31 but this was rejected and their relationship worsened.

Tunku Abdul Rahman rejected Lim's demands, prompting Lim to resign as president of MCA ...

Eventually Chong Eu took his 'popularity' back to his hometown Penang where he started humbly but rather significantly with his own new party the United Democratic Party (UDP) which became one of the several parties and NGOs that formed the once-powerful Gerakan Party.

Gerakan (in a loose front with DAP and another once-great PPP) won so convincingly in 1969 that many including Malays thought it would be the next ruling party in the following election.

Firstly, the May 13 riots, secondly the formation of Barisan Nasional (BN) which included Gerakan Party, and thirdly the divide-&-rule-within-BN strategy of Tun Razak prevented the further rise of Gerakan Party, denying its place as possibly Malaysia's dominant multiracial party.

Tun Razak's strategy saw Gerakan Party besieged from within BN by its old foe MCA, whilst it had to contend with its former ally, DAP, from without.

Thus, the Gerakan Party today is a pale shadow of its once popularity and potential greatness.

But Chong Eu did become CM of Penang for 21 years. In 1990 he was defeated by Lim Kit Siang of DAP during a period which saw internecine war between Gerakan and MCA in Penang.

If MCA did not replace Chong Eu or had held him back after his tiff with Tunku, the political landscape could have been different, but that's for the alternative history of 'what if'.

As for Anwar Ibrahim, I leave it to UMNO (including PKR die-hards) to also reflect on 'what if'.

More interesting would be Fong Po Kuan who was MP for Batu Gajah from 1999 to 2013. Nicknamed 'cili padi' for her sterling take-no-shit performance in federal parliament, the tri-lingual sweetheart was the youngest MP in 1999.

This should surprise many of you, that Po Kuan was a law graduate of the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM).

In some ways she was a wee bit like Teh Yee Cheu in not getting along well with the DAP Perak state leaders but unlike Teh she didn't air her differences with her party leaders in public.

Due to differences with the party leaders in Perak, she did not want to defend her seat in the 2008 general elections but her popularity with her electorate was so immense that Lim Kit Siang had to persuade her to stand for Batu Gajah again.

She agreed and won 72.78% of the votes with a staggering resultant majority of 24,627 votes. But she did not re-contest in 2013, surrendering her place to her colleague V Sivakumar.

She is still in the DAP.

Teh Yee Cheu is a good bloke but he has to understand that being a member of a party requires discipline and at times sacrifices in one's personal stand. Fong Po Kuan had been an example of such discipline and sacrifice.

Teh in taking his disagreements with his party into the public arena, no matter how sincere he has been, shows his inability to be a disciplined member of a party.

He can still serve the people of Tanjung Bungah as an independent, though as a member of another party may yet see him facing/experiencing the same maverick problem. In essence he is not a party bloke.

Pity. But I wish Teh all the best in his future career.