LETTER | MCA polls: A missed opportunity at reforms

LETTER | The MCA elections held over the weekend are over but one could be forgiven for asking "There was an election?" or "Who cares about the MCA?".

Such is the state which the 74-year-old MCA finds itself under - almost utterly irrelevant and unrelatable to voters, especially the Chinese whom the party was set up to defend and help.

Since the 2008 general election, where it won only seven parliamentary seats, it's been downhill for MCA, which is now reduced to having only two MPs - its president Wee Ka Siong in Ayer Hitam and newly-minted vice-president Wee Jeck Seng in Tanjung Piai.

Both are Malay-majority seats. So much for being champions of the Chinese.

In last month's elections in six states, the party sat out - ostensibly to strategise for the next general election.

However, it's an open secret the party wasn't offered any winnable seats compared with the mighty DAP, its fellow partner in the unity government.

But just as one thought that MCA had hit rock bottom, the internal polls over the weekend show that it had no qualms about digging deeper into the abyss of political irrelevance.

On paper, free and fair elections were held. In reality, Wee just tightened his grip on MCA, and in the process, stifled any attempts at rejuvenation and renewal.

While Wee had won with a landslide with 569 votes, against sole challenger, Tan Chong Seng, who only bagged 11 votes, the poor turnout was an indictment of the now spent force. The polls saw a turnout of only 56 percent.

More worryingly, the line-up is stacked with Wee's loyalists. The newly-elected vice-president Low Ah Keong, Youth chief Ling Tian Soon and Deputy Youth chief Mike Chong Yew Chuan were all political aides to Wee when he was Transport Minister until last year.

Many in the line-up are part of Wee's “cai tan” or "menu", a lingo for a list of candidates favoured by the party president.

Outspoken leaders like former vice president Ti Lian Ker, considered a thorn in the MCA president's flesh over the former's persistent attacks against the unity government, were booted out over the weekend.

Since becoming party president in 2018, when BN was toppled for the first time in 61 years a few months prior, Wee has been consolidating his position in the party through political patronage.

At best, Wee only pays lip service to reforms and efforts to rejuvenate the party.

If he had been serious, MCA would not have suffered multiple electoral setbacks since. Voters, particularly the Chinese, are still not convinced the party has what it takes to represent them.

One simply cannot think of any bold measures that MCA has made to repair its image since Wee took over.

This is a missed opportunity considering the DAP had been losing clout since it joined the unity government over unfulfilled electoral pledges, as well as its stance over issues like Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's disqualification not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) and the possibility of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak being freed.

A revived and rejuvenated MCA would have given the DAP a run for its money. A keen DAP-MCA competition would have benefitted the electorate.

But with Wee's grip on power enhanced after last weekend's polls, he would have fewer incentives to push the envelope on the much-needed reforms in the party.

As this may be his last term (the president's tenure is capped at nine years), Wee may spend the remaining four years as president positioning his supporters in key posts so that he could remain pulling levers of power after his retirement as president.

MCA has yet again missed the boat for reforms and rejuvenation. The next one will only come in three years or more (if internal polls are postponed again to make way for the general election).

But by then, the final nail would have been driven into MCA's political coffin.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.