A few intriguing situations 2

by Dr Hsu 

Second intriguing question is that will there be Chinese representation in the cabinet and state excos? This is because MCA and Gerakan have decided not to accept any cabinet positions in view of their poor performance in this election.

To answer this, we must look back and see how effective the past Chinese representation has been. Chinese representation were mainly from Chinese based parties such as MCA, and multiracial parties such as Gerakan and SUPP.

The best gauge would be the community’s reaction to those who are representatives inside. The fact that the community has rejected these parties shows that the representation has not been effective in channeling what the community needs and wants.

The perception among the public is, apart from OTK who went against  Bn culture by digging into  the PKFZ (though he was not the one exposing it), the Chinese ministers are yes men, and are only there for their self interest.

Even the deputy of Dong Zhong, the Chinese educationist grouping, openly stated in newspapers that “better not to have them than to have them inside”. This reflects the views of many.

Personally, I agree that if the representation is not effective, then it really does not matter whether there are Chinese ministers inside, since if they are not effective or dare not speak against fellow UMNO ministers, then they may even be presenting a wrong picture to the whole cabinet.

Even as early as in the 50s, this type of misrepresentation has happened. There was a MCA executive secretary then name Tan Tong Hye (later known as Mohamad Tahir Tan), this is what wikipedia said about him ( and the Tunku too had mentioned this in one of his books):

In May 1954, an UMNO-MCA Alliance delegation composed of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak and Tan arrived in London to demand for an effective elected majority in the new Federal Legislative Council. The MCA president, Tan Cheng Lock, could not make it because he would not travel by air. He authorized Tan Tong Hye to represent him in the talks. For the trip, Tan was instructed by MCA to hand a memorandum issued by the MCA and Chinese educational bodies opposing colonial education policy over to the British Undersecretary of State for Colonies, Oliver Lyttelton . But Tan did not hand over the memorandum…

Tan did not pass to the British the memorandum of the Chinese education bodies then. Some alleged that he threw the memorandum into a dustbin (source:Malaysia Baru).

One might wonder what would be the course of history if he had passed the memorandum to the British government; would there be a policy more inclined to the aspiration of the Chinese community, noting that at that time, there was no internet and social media from which the British could get feedback, other then from MCA which purportedly represented the Chinese community.

So an ineffective representation may lead to disinformation and misinformation. (What TH Tan did was a form of disinformation to mislead the British, why he did so, there were many theories).

Coming back to MCA’s decision not to accept any cabinet positions since they did much worse than the last round.  In a Chinese forum soon after the GE, a political observer who was a speaker at that forum predicted that eventually MCA would make a U-turn and accept back the positions. To this observer, the whole thing is only a sandiwara.

I agree with that assessment. MCA has now 7 MPs left. Most of these would be very eager to be appointed as ministers, what with all the trappings like body guards, drivers, official cars, hefty salary plus allowances, and you-know-what..

And as MPs who had won their seats despite the tough election, they would think that they deserve to be appointed inside, so as to enjoy the ‘fruits’ of their victories. This is human nature . Liow  must be thinking  of getting a minister’s post to launch his bid for the presidency of the party;  with that comes certain ‘power’ as long as Big Brother is pleased.

But to do that, they need to choose a new leadership fast so as to overturn the resolution that prevent them from accepting cabinet appointment. To do that fast, they need Chua to resign immediately and vacate the post of presidency.

But Chua probably has another plan. He would and want to oversee the transition period (especially the dividion elections) during which he could, as incumbent, place as many allies as possible in positions of influence so as to ensure the ascendency of junior Chua. This is all part of politics of Malaysia; everyone at the helm wants a dynasty, even though nothing much is left off on the table anymore, so to speak . … So he would not budge from his seats unless a EGM is called to oust him. That would not be easy, since you normally require a 2/3 votes to sack a president.

I do not wish to comment on Gerakan, since to all intents and purposes, this party has lost all its roots, a situation I predicted after 2008. It has now left with one parliamentary seat and one state seat in Johor; the 2 seats in Sabah do not count much since those are originally not from Gerakan. I feel sad that a great party which started with lots of promise and foresight  has come to this stage; a lesson to all that once a party has failed to realise what the people want, this will be the result.