Will Chua mirror Lee San Choon’s Seremban feat?

Dr Chua Soi Lek, who has boasted of three offers to contest, must battle a worthy opponent.

COMMENT

The idea of MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek contesting in Seremban is titillating.

Chua had declared in a pre-Deepavali speech in Seremban that he had received invitations from the Menteris Besar of Johor, Perak and Negeri Sembilan to contest in a constituency in their respective states.

The speech made in Seremban is significant in several aspects.

If Chua chooses to do battle in Seremban, now is the time for the Seremban folks to redeem what their predecessors did in 1982.

In 1982, the MCA president then, Lee San Choon contested in Seremban against the then DAP chairman, Dr Chen Man Hing.

Lee won after MCA and Barisan Nasional spent millions of ringgit directly inducing voters to vote for the MCA president.

That was the costliest victory won by an MCA president. MCA literally went on a spending free on that day- it bought everyone it can shove money to.

Malay votes were delivered by the usual suspects of political wheeler dealers.

The contest was dubbed as the clash of the Chinese Titans.

Battle for bragging rights

Chua must be thinking that it’s possible for him to repeat that feat. He is now the MCA president.

But one ingredient to that thinking is missing – the men representing his opponent in Chinese leadership are not standing in Seremban.

Lim Guan Eng is in Penang and Lim Kit Siang is in Perak.

So for Chua to repeat the feat of a former MCA president he has to choose a battleground where his appropriate opponent stands.

That was what the contest between Lee San Choon and Chen Man Hing represented.

It represented not only a contest between money power of the MCA and the dogged determination of Chen.

It was in reality a contest to earn the bragging rights as to who is the leader of the Chinese community.

Lee was out to prove that there can only be one tiger on top of the mountain.

Who is more relevant?

To me then, Chua must retrace the steps taken by Lee in its entirety. He must stand in a place where he will contest against a worthy opponent.

Now is the time to show his much talked about strength in character.

That can only be proven if he either takes on Kit Siang or Guan Eng.

That clash will prove once and for all, which Chinese leader is more relevant to the community presently.

The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman and a FMT columnist. This is an excerpt from his blog sakmongkolak47