Tee Keat's renewed PKFZ push sparks talk of a move to Pakatan

Tee Keat - unable to change MCA

Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle

When former Transport minister Ong Tee Keat revealed that 4 out of the 10 questions he submitted to Parliament were directly related to the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone financial debacle, he inadvertently lit a fire of speculation that he was set to join Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim's Pakatan Rakyat soon.

“Might as well Tee Keat does it and the sooner the better. There is no role left for him in the MCA and he can serve the country and his constituents better outside of the BN, rather than be marginalized and slowly squeezed out from the party,” was among the common responses from the Chinese community.

The 54-year Tee Keat is the former MCA president, but was ousted midway through his 3-year term that began in October 2008, by his deputy Chua Soi Lek.

Indeed, the temperamental but gifted Tee Keat had exasperated Malaysian Chinese with his non-stop high-profile bickering with Soi Lek. His belligerence led to his downfall, although there is also some evidence that he was betrayed by some of the people he trusted the most, as he himself has claimed.

PKFZ and Tee Keat's ouster

Even so, Tee Keat still commands high respect for refusing to back off from exposing the PKFZ scandal and many MCA members compare him favorably against Kong Cho Ha, the new Transport minister and Soi Lek's ally. On his very first day at work in the Transport ministry, Cho Ha had already disappointed by insisting there was no need to continue the government's probe into PKFZ.

Integrated ports project, PKFZ fell to massive cost over-runs

Billed the biggest scandal in Malaysian financial history, PKFZ is a complex tale of high-level Umno-BN intrigue and corruption with the involvement of MCA leaders who allegedly fronted the project.

Despite repeated hints from Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is also Umno president, to drop the investigation, Tee Keat had stubbornly clung on. In the end, Najib took PKFZ away from the Transport ministry's charge and placed it under a special taskforce headed by the government’s Chief Secretary.

Tee Keat was slowly ousted from MCA, removed as Transport minister and his supporters cut off from influential positions.

Ling's arrest - a warning to MCA

A few months later, with Soi Lek fully ensconced in the MCA leadership, another former president Ling Liong Sik was arrested for his involvement in the PKFZ scandal. In typical fashion, the Najib administration leaked out news that Liong Sik was just the first in a series of top Umno-BN leaders to be hauled up over PKFZ. But so far, there have been no other high-profile arrests.

Ling's arrest - a warning to MCA not to expose BN scandals

“Liong Sik was arrested as a warning to MCA not to be funny or try to be too independent and raise the PKFZ issue or blow the whistle on any other BN scandal again. It was a clear reminder from Umno of who’s the boss. The whole anti-corruption thing was just a sham put out by Najib’s advisers. It may have confused the ordinary folk but I think MCA leaders are in no doubt what the message meant,” PKR strategic director Tian Chua toldMalaysia Chronicle.

Not surprising then, the MCA grapevine has been buzzing with talk that Liong Sik, who still wields significant influence, is extremely upset with Tee Keat. Meanwhile, MCA watchers say Soi Lek - who has always been on bad terms with Tee Keat - is also eager to shut the door on his nemesis once and for all.

They believe that the MCA leadership will not select Tee Keat to stand for Pandan or any other seat in the coming general election. He has been the Pandan Member of Parliament since 2004, and before that was MP for Ampang Jaya for 4 consecutive terms.

Given the MCA's dismal electoral performance in the March 2008 general election and its failure to reform and re-brand itself, pundits say Tee Keat would have a much better chance of retaining the Pandan seat if he competed under a Pakatan ticket rather than a BN one.