Fur Justice,Freedom,Solidarity • the MCA
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KON 0861/84 VOL. IV: NO. 5 MAY 1984 PRICE: $1.00 fur Justice,Freedom,Solidarity • THE MCA CRISIS.. he MCA, the second largest political Ong Yoke Lin, Tan Siew Sin, and the Association. Tparty in the country is currently in towkay leaders gathered around Tun Tan This was followed by t he ignominous the midst of an internal conflict which Ch eng Lock, who was al ready in his defeat of the MCA in the 1969 elections threatens to sp lit it down the middle. Yet waning years. By 1959 t he party was after which there was a new ca ll for about two years ago, many observers badly divided and the co nflict was only "Chinese Un ity" . In the aftermath of the were noting that it was more united and overcome when the Young Turks left the 1969 riots, the move was, apparently, stabl e than it had been for over a decade. party. In essence then, the problem was we lcomed. The party expanded rapidly The th en Pres ident, Datuk Lee San swept outside the party and a new and wa s rejuvenated. Nevertheless, these Choon had firm co ntrol over the party. period of ca lm and unity prevailed. gains aga in proved temporary. Judging from its claim of 500,000 mem- However, the ca lm was short-lived Many of the Young Turks, often bers and it s success in the Apri I 1982 for in the mid-sixties, new conflicts arose recent members, like Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, General El ections it appeared to be at the though of lesser proportions. As earlier, Paul Leong, Dr. Tan Tiong Hong, T .C. height of a new wave of popular support . the confli cts were not so much resolved Choong, Alex Lee and their supporters What has go ne wrong? What are the as "exported away" as in t he case of Sim who had called for substantive internal reasons for this turn-about? What does Mow Yee's departure, then MCA Youth reforms were subsequently expelled from this tell us of the MCA and of the practise deputy leader and concurrently President the party in 1973. The immediate ca use of politics in Ma laysia? And what lessons of the Ch inese School Teachers' was their challenge of the MCA stalwarts ma y we learn from these developments? Perennial Struggle for Leadership It is our belief that this sudden, though not unexpected change, has come about as a result of the MCA's perennial leadership struggles. The party, seemi ngly stable, and its slogan of "Chinese Unity" notwithstand ing , has always been divided into cliques and factions gat hered arou nd rt icula r leaders. In deed , a survey of the CA's c.hequered history of 35 yea rs reveals that there have been as many, f not more, occasions of unrest and nflict as there have been periods of bility and unity. In fact, in the late fifties, less than a cade after its formation, the MCA was ready faced with a major crisis. Then, a oup of "Young Turks" led by Dr. Lim ng Eu, Too Joan Hing, Yong Pung w, Tan Suan Kok and Ng Ek Teong ied themselves with Tun H.S. Lee and llenged the party stalwarts comprising ban, Kuala Lumpur and the Kinta Vall 11111 where the Chinese community concentrated. olitics in t IS Viewed within this larger conte 1111 we see that the present conflict is butt latest in a series of crises that the pa b ut elites a e1r has undergone over the past 35 yea Ironically, the slogan of the party h always been "Chinese Unity". str I f r Commenting on the current situatio 1M Dr. Tan Chee Khoon has remarked th "the MCA is only running true to form" I st t r He has also asked "will the MCA nev learn from the lessons of history?" which then included Tun Tan Siew Sin, were various allegations that Lee had Indeed, the problems, particularly o Lee San Choon, Lee Siok Yew and Kam master-minded his victory through leadership, have always been "expelled" Woon Wah. But the related and more control of the numerous branch executive away. And despite the party's claim to important issu~ was their demand for secretaries and the state committees. "collective leadership", power is actually greater democracy withif") the party and a Tensions reamined high and in 1981, concentrated in the hands of the Presi- curb of the President's powers which was, just before . the next party elections, dent·. Witness for instance, how the however, not achieved. The stalwarts sixty-one members were expelled inclu- opposition has been dealt control of the party machinery and ding former , Minister and Deputy current and past disputes. support by the government contributed President Lee Siok Yew and former to their victory over the reformers most deputy Minister Wong Seng Chow. Many Cliques Not Issues of whom joined the Gerakan ultimately. of those expelled were sympathetic to A second point that 1s Important to Once again the. problem was "evicted" Chen. Reading the writing on the wall, note is that in this, as in previous crise., rather than resolved. Consequently, Chen did not challenge Lee for the apart from the call for greater party power continued to be concentrated in presidency a second time. Subsequently, democracy, there does not seem to be the hands of the President. Chen resigned and led a group of suppor- any other issue of great importance that Be that as it may, stability and unity ters into the Gerakan thus rejoining his separates one clique from another. Not did not return to the MCA. Datuk erstwhile Young Turk colleagues. surprising, so-called "Young Turks" can Michael Chen who had been sympathetic With these departures, and Richard turn "Old Guards" overnight. Former to the Young Turks had remained behind Ho's own resignation in August 1982 members of parties opposed to the MCA in the party. Thus when Tun Tan stepped after he was not re-nominated for the may even turn ardent supporters of down as President in 1974 and Lee San April elections, a new calm within the contending cliques within the MCA, and Choon and Lee Siok Yew moved up, old MCA surfaced. But party democracy had vice versa. Witness for example Lee Siok wounds were re-opened . also been further eroded. For the first Yew working so closely with Lee San But the impending conflict took a time since he took over in 1974, Lee Choon in 1971-73 only to throw his twist in 1977 when Lee San Choon tried had no contenders within the party. And weight behind Michael Chen against to replace his Deputy, Lee Siok Yew, when he appointed his protege Dr. Neo Lee several years later. Likewise, one of with Chong Hon Nyan. With Lee Siok Yee Pan as his Deputy in 1982, he those recently expelled, Chan Teck Chan, Yew's support, Chen, the Minister for Housing and New Villages, won the No. 2 spot in the contest. For the next two years Lee San Choon was forced to work •••~ in a situation where alongside a deputy whom he could not fully trust. Things were uneasy. To conso- lidate his position, Lee further concen- im o ant issues are trated power in the office of the Presi- dent. Apart from appointing his own men to head the various state liaison commit- not addr ssed, p rty tees, who in turn nominated their supporters to their state teams, provisions were also made necessitating Lee's cli u s em r e on this approval in the appointment of executive secretaries in all MCA branches. Not surprisingly, Chen challenged Lee patronag basis for the top post in 1979. His running- mate was Richard Ho, Minister of Labour ensured that the No. 2 man was someone is a former OAP leader. Yet, other and a former OAP MP who joined the he could trust. With that, not only was former OAP leaders like Seow Hun Khim MCA in 1971 because of the exciting Lee's position strengthened but the and Chin Nyok Soo who joined the reforms the Young Turks were then party also achieved greater unity and MCA with Chan some years ago, are now calling for, but who like Chen, had stayed stability. The stability coincided with the on the opposite side of the conflict. And behind in the MCA. Once again Lee electoral successes in April 1982 when what of the political "chameleon" Lim picked Chong Hon Nyan as his running- Kean Siew in Penang who is reported to mate. the MCA won 24 of 28 parliamentary and 55 of 62 .state seats it contested. It was a have sacked Lee Jong Ki, the Penang In the elections, the results of which significant improvement over the MCA's MCA secretary whom he himself ./' were subsequently challenged in court, performance in 1978 especially since its appointed some years back? Chen was defeated but Ho won. There victories were in urban areas like Serem- Politics in the MCA, then, like it is so ALIRAN MONTHLY MAY 1984 2 1 in the other parties too, is about ; and their struggle for power against another. Indeed, the present crisis sparked off more because of Neo's ,intmen+ of Datuk Mak Hon Kam as liti s 1g Deputy President rather than use o~ " phantom voters" or any r issue. Nevertheless, the point is that najor issues that confront us - like a ening ethnic situation, the erosion of ties or the widening gap between the and the poor - are issues beyond 1iavellian power politics, they are 1tially those of an ethnic nature like s her Neo has represented the Chinese uately or not.