FINAL CALL OR GAME OVER for the MCA?

WITH Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and his running mate Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong elected MCA president and deputy president over the weekend, the second largest Barisan Nasional (BN) component party may have found the cure to infighting and factionalism that has been its trademark for decades.

At last, some 2,000-odd delegates who were king-makers at the party election had picked their president and his deputy from the same camp, a stark departure from the voting trends of the past where they often elected top leaders from opposing factions.

And with disastrous consequences to the party that the Chinese community virtually abandoned in the last general election, raising the spectre as to whether it was still relevant in the fast changing Malaysian political landscape.

It's even more so after what Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak rightly described as the "Chinese tsunami" in the May general election when MCA notched its worst result in its 64-year history.

Many politicians disputed the use of the term "Chinese tsunami" with the argument that there was also the perceived Malay or Indian tsunami in the 13th general election but Najib was spot on if one knows what a tsunami is.

I was in Aceh a week after the tsunami that drowned hundreds of thousands of people in 2004 and when I asked some survivors to relate what happened on that tragic date exactly nine years ago tomorrow. They said the tidal waves were taller than coconut trees.

In comparison, the loss of Malay or Indian votes by the BN was more like ripples in the ocean.

Despite the massive loss of support for MCA, its leaders still bask and love infighting, no thanks to what can only be likened to a "president's ego" even until the final hours of last weekend's polls.

When the results were announced, there was a rare display and sense of rampant acceptance of the crucial need to consign the cancer that has afflicted MCA to its history and not its future.

Indeed, if public pledges that the winners and losers and their supporters will close ranks moving forward can be upheld, then MCA has indeed entered a new era with Liow vowing to practise inclusiveness in uniting and strengthening the party.

Najib's message when opening the 60th MCA annual general meeting was the strongest that I've ever heard him deliver at meetings of BN component parties.

"Every time there is a contest, MCA splits, and another contest, MCA splits again, therefore MCA's influence will bound to shrink as a result of these splits.

"Take this as the last call for MCA. This is a signal from the Chinese community. It's no longer a wake-up call, if you are not awakened now, it's too late," he said.

And by way of re-emphasising his point, he warned yet again, "It's the last call for MCA."

It was obvious that Najib's exhortations did sink in loud and clear among the delegates that resulted in the victory of Liow and Wee at the party's helm.

Amid his all too serious tone, Najib injected humour when he prescribed to MCA to take a dose of "political viagra" to boost its current "impotence", saying "We'll ask the health minister to provide the medication."

Liow, a former health minister, is now in the best position to prescribe the kind of viagra that party should take.

But jokes aside, MCA needs more than a dose of such medication and other forms of vitamins to revive, rejuvenate and re-energise itself ahead of the next general election that's due in 2018. Its very survival is at stake.

Liow's first speech as the new president following the polls were very comforting and shows the kind of leader that he wants to be – "There is no more Liow or Chua (his predecessor Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek) faction. We are all in one team and we are the MCA team."

In congratulating Wee, the new deputy president, as soon as the outcome was known, I sent him this message: "The important thing is not to allow the history of MCA No. 1 and No. 2 always at war with each other to repeat itself moving forward. Otherwise, all will be in vain."

Because his handphone became a hotline with texts coming from all over, he managed to respond to my message only some 48 hours later with a phone call and I must thank him for it.

Wee told me the party members, supporters and voters can be assured that under Liow and him, there won't be internal squabbles and infighting because not many people know that both of them go back a long way.

"We were student leaders in our university days way back some 25 years ago. And on top of that both of us come from Jasin in Malacca. And Malacca is the home state of MCA founder Tun Tan Cheng Lock, and the highly respected MCA president, his son Tun Tan Siew Sin."

Wee said the new leadership comprised many young fresh faces with more than half of them coming from the Youth wing of the party who were part of the movement when it was led by Liow and immediately after that by himself.

It's indeed a fresh beginning especially with Chua's decision to honour his promise not to seek re-election and his failure to get the party's endorsement to censure Liow as well as his failed attempt to ask Liow not to contest the president's post after launching a personal attack on him.

Many were amused by Chua's remark that he has no regrets about sticking to his "no contest" stand. To observers, the question of regret doesn't arise at all because in the best interest of the party and the BN, his departure is not only the best solution to the infighting but the only one that must have brought about a huge sigh of relief from fellow BN component party leaders, especially Najib.

MCA's poor performance at the last general election can be seen as the voters' rejection of Chua's leadership and was what really caused the BN to flounder and the loss yet again of its two-thirds majority in Parliament

It was Chua who got the party to shun federal cabinet posts and state executive council appointments as a strategy to improve its dismal performance in the 2008 general election, only to see the ploy backfire and the voters slapping the party in the face in the 2013 polls.

His idea of belittling such high appointments as the cabinet – the nation's highest policymaking authority – is highly misconceived because voters took it as a threat and rightly they showed their disgust at the 13th general election.

Wee reiterated his call for everyone to "let bygones be bygones" in order for the party to fight a war in a few years, referring to GE14.

He has said the new leadership's aim is to garner the support of at least 30% of the Chinese community which he thinks is achievable as the party has always maintained that level except in the GE13.

To begin with, MCA must return to the cabinet and the just-elected leadership is expected to decide on this early into the new year. The party is normally allocated four cabinet posts but with only seven members of Parliament now compared to 15 previously, it will get its fair share once the dust from the haze that's been enveloping the party settles.

Anyway, what kind of cabinet is it without representation from the second largest community especially when we talk about 1Malaysia?

We are all used to hearing this public announcement at airports: Final call for passengers boarding Flight ...

For MCA, it's really the final call.  -  The Sundaily