AUG 15 — Inside a restaurant amid the leafy suburb of Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur, the former president of the MCA, Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik, frequently meets old friends.
Some of these friends include potential candidates in the party’s upcoming polls, including his two sons Hee Leong and Hee Keat.
But with the number of party members present at some of these meetings, they have lately taken on an appearance of strategy sessions for the MCA elections.
Officially Dr Ling has denied any involvement in the ongoing campaign, but the former president, who led the party for 18 years between 1986 and 2003, remains a powerful and influential figure in the MCA.
There is widespread speculation that he has offered more than his endorsement to a slate of candidates to take control of the party from his former protégé Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting.
Ong appears to have selected his own team, or menu in MCA parlance, of candidates to take over the party following his decision, along with that of his deputy Datuk Chan Kong Choy, not to defend their positions in the October elections.
"It is all shadow play again in the MCA. The leaders all deny it but there is obviously a Team A and Team B again," a senior party central committee member told The Malaysian Insider, referring to what has become a long-standing plight of factionalism in the party.
Among the candidates who Dr Ling is said to be supporting are former vice-president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, vice-president Datuk Donald Lim, Wanita chief Datuk Ng Yen Yen, vice-president Datuk Dr Fong Chan Onn, former secretary-general Datuk Ting Chew Peh and his two sons.
Ka Ting has endorsed vice-president Datuk Ong Tee Keat, Youth chief Datuk Liow Tiong Lai, secretary-general and the president's brother Datuk Ong Ka Chuan, deputy Wanita chief Chew Mei Fun and Youth secretary-general Wee Ka Siong.
Despite his denial of any involvement, Dr Ling's every word and movement is being watched closely, testament to his continuing sway over a party desperate for some direction following its debilitating losses in the March general election.
Late last month he told reporters that "all veterans have the right to participate in the party elections," in an apparent endorsement of the presumed candidacies of Soi Lek and Dr Ting for top posts.
So far only Tee Keat has declared his candidacy, by announcing his tilt for the presidency last month.
Still, it is becoming clear that Tee Keat will likely face a challenge from Soi Lek, who has been busy criss-crossing the country to meet MCA grassroots, in what is looking to become a bruising contest once again between two rival factions for control of the party.
But whoever wins the presidency, or whichever faction seizes control of the party, will have their work cut out for them in trying to regain Chinese support for the party.
A commentary in this week's Sin Chew Daily, the country's biggest Chinese-language newspaper, sums up the feelings right now of the community towards the MCA.
The newspaper wrote: "We have not seen any future leader telling party members and the public how he or she is going to lead the party, to reform or transform it, and how he can restore the Chinese community's confidence towards the MCA.
"Unfortunately what we see are candidates who engage in an endless war of words over past incidents… From the exchange of bitter words among these candidates, we do not see MCA's vision. Instead, the whole election has been reduced to a meaningless, noisy war of words."
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For the sake of the Chinese, I urged MCA members to elect a new breed of leaders. The above have contributed to MCA being threshed in the last election. It cannot afford these leaders in the next one.