Ong KA Ting "Top Dog"

By Two Cents, Free Malaysia Today


Crisis and opportunity, MCA in the worst of times, and paradoxically in the best of times. There is no need to write and re-write the comical, twisted events for a much jaded public and an even more exhausted community. We shall attempt to zero in on what may help put the issues in clearer perspectives.
That the once venerable party has sunk to its lowest depths is clear, one wonders what former deputy premier Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman would say today. His famous 'MCA tidak hidup tak mati' remark post-1969 would probably resonate well with the Chinese community today.
Its leaders are perceived as corrupted and self-serving, whose only ambition is to be and remain ministers. There are no clear visions or road-maps to speak of. It has been trounced in almost every seat with a substantial Chinese majority.


It is stuck, even trapped in its own dogma, unable to attract new passionate members, unable to re-brand or re-position its relevance to an increasingly demanding and aware electorate.
Yet, in this crisis, there is the greatest opportunity since 1974 to reinvent the party.
The March 2008 general election debacle, the increasingly desperate hopes of the party faithful, a community no longer expecting much of the party, Barisan Nasional partners using the party as a claim to its veneer or multi-racialism; this is paradoxically the best of times to bring forth radical out-of-the-box reforms that will and must re-create a new branding and identity for the party.
The party is arguably the richest political organisation in Malaysia, with sustainable recurrent income of RM60 million or more annually and assets of more than a billion ringgit. What is needed now is a great sincere transformational leadership .
As such, the first issue that should be dissected is to determine which of the three presidental candidates is most likely to bring forth that possibility .


From the best to the worst


When Ong Tee Keat took over the presidency, the conditions were already in place for transformational leadership. As a much touted maverick he brought much hope to those hoping for a revival. He was challenged by a former close friend and adviser on whether he wanted to be just another president or aspired to be the greatest MCA leader. In short, he had the free rein to reform the party then.
One and a half years on, he has been called the worst MCA president ever. His omnipresent reminders about his sacrifices, his tragic hero role is sounding tiresome. His declared brave war against the warlords of PKFZ contradicts his enjoyment of the warlord's private jet.
He even outdid Neo Yee Pan in sackings after sackings of perceived rivals as if the party was his private company. His fatal error in not keeping to his vow to step down should he lose the EGM last October cost him his last bragging rights - his avowed integrity or as they like to say in Chinese movies, his perceived righteousness.
As for vision and strategies to re-invent the party, all he did was nothing beyond re-shuffling the party's newspaper The Star to install his spin doctors.
The clearest indictment of his short reign is perhaps the turning away of his once close adviser and probably MCA's best strategist for the last 20 years Wong Mook Leong, who resigned in disgust from the central committee.
Tee Keat is now campaigning on allowing him to finish his agenda. Was there ever an outlined clear agenda or was it all war drums?
It would take many, many naive delegates to see his re-election indeed.


Return of old president
The surprise was, of course, Ong Ka Ting's return to the ring. Whatever the motivation or reason given, there is truly a need for a third and more palatable choice. Surely in the hearts and minds of many a delegate there must be a wish for a giant of a man; a proven leader of men with vision, integrity and courage who can appear and lead MCA out of the wilderness.
Contrary to popular belief, Ka Ting's presidency was not a result of the peace accord between Team A and Team B in 2003. He as former president Dr Ling Liong Sik's preferred successor was already planned by Ling and his advisers back in 1995. Despite his obvious lack of charisma, Ling stuck to his plan and Ka Ting took over upon his mentor's resignation.
Ka Ting's leadership will forever be known for two major milestones: the introduction of the three-term limit for key leadership positions, and the 2008 general election debacle.
The three-term limit rule was the result of aggressive and continuous pressure from key reformists led by Mook Leong, and to Ka Ting's credit he supported it. However, the events and leadership or the lack of it leading to the general election debacle must be on his shoulders. Ka Ting's leadership is generally agreed as insipid and colourless.
He is certainly not the man that can revive the party. He might have a chance if he campaigns on a more believable theme, that his mission is to prepare the party for transformational leadership change come the next party elections.


The better choice?


Dr Chua Soi Lek meanwhile has certainly stunned the pundits with his comeback win as deputy president and the fact that he is a serious contender today speaks volumes of his tenacity. Compared to the other two, his not having been president is a major plus as the other two had a go and blew their chances.
Chua's strength and weakness is his daring-do, his devil-may-care, hell-for-leather attitude. When he was in the Johor Exco, and while he was the health minister, stories were abound of him stepping on numerous toes.
On top of all these, there is also the sex scandal as whatever credit one can give him for his brutal admission, his rapid decisive action to confront the issue and subsequent resignation, the questions of that scandal remain.
Surely at the back of every delegates' mind the thought will linger - can the man perform (no pun intended) at the no holds barred level of national politics?
His supporters brandish his courage and decisiveness as the very values needed to transform the party.
Chua needs to find clever ways to address the sex scandal issue. He has obviously done that to his core 40 plus percent delegates. If he can sell the same to another five percent directly or via a strategic alliance, he will win decisively.
Without the albatross of a failed presidency around his neck, and with the worst of battle scars behind him, Chua may well be paradoxically the better choice.


Two Cents is a pseudonym of an MCA observer with inside track in the party. This is a three-part series in which he attempts to provoke the party to wake up from its deep slumber and regain its lost status. In this first part, he writes about the three candidates vying for the presidential post, tomorrow he will outline the battlelines and horse tradings that will take place before the polling on Sunday and in his final part, he will give his views and strategies on how to make MCA relevant agai

The Man Behind Liow Tiong Lai.

Ironically people who go for the kill always does it best by posturing that he is coming to the rescue...

I have always respected Ong Ka Ting until I discovered a cold calculated leader in him that is totally devoid of emotions. Someone reasoned that he is cold and unsympathetic towards others as he was bullied as a child as a result of family poverty and circumstantial.

As such he lacks compassion for victims of circumstances and am unsympathetic to victims as he has been in similar situations or worst and he did not received the timely compassion or sympathies needed.

Therefore he is the product of a social vicious circle if he is indeed cold and calculated as alleged. No one would believe or perceive the 'Mr.Hyde' in him until you have encountered the darker side of him.

For the students of art of warfare, the recent Mca debacles were ideal models of the art of war at its best. The ultimate beneficiary is the Ong Brothers again and the losers is Mca again.

Here is the scenario of a very polished and articulated plan executed by a master strategist.

Ka Ting had executed a perfect plan to place his brother Ong Ka Chuan to be the Minister in the Federal Cabinet. Had the election results of 308 been favorable, the Ong Brothers will make history by being the first brothers in cabinet.

Both the Ong Brothers will be 50% or consist of half the MCA ministers in the Federal Cabinet. That would have been a dream come true for the brothers from Lenggong, a remote new village in northern Perak.

Unfortunately the 308 election results was one of Mca's worst election results and thus Ka Ting decided to pass the baton to his elder brother Ong Ka Chuan. In the process of grooming his elder brother to be the next Minister Ka Ting had first identified the rules and regulations to eliminate the existing Cabinet Ministers then.

Fong Chan Onn the Human Resource Minister will be eliminated for having served two terms as a Minister. Chua Soi Lek the Health Minister was eliminated by a video shooting star. Chan Kong 'Choy will self detonate and run away to Australia for being mysteriously 'sick' but yet attempted to lobby to stand again during the last general election.

To cut a long story short, Ka Ting chaired his last Central Committee meeting and had attempted to control the party assets worth billions by proposing a 'Trust Committee' to administer the party's assets but it was short down by the Central Committee who smelled a fish somewhere.

The properly executed plan of depriving the two Vice President Ong Tee Keat and Donald Lim of a State Liaison Chairman was strictly to cut the wings of these two up and coming politicians who were then the potential Ministers in waiting.

But Ka Ting was reserving and planning the next Mca Minister to be none other than his appointed Secretary General Ong Ka Chuan who happens to be his elder brother despite the fact that he had lost and faired badly in the 2004 election when he stood against Fong Po Kuan.

He had forced Loke Yuen Yow to vacate the Tanjung Malim parliamentary seat to his elder brother as it was deem to be a safe seat. Ka Chuan cannot afford to lose this time as he had lost his to Poh Kuan in Batu Gajah in the 2004 election. He is the only State Liaison Chairman who had lost and yet rewarded with the powerful party position of Secretary General by his younger brother. Thus Ka Ting had seek a safe seat and a safe path for his elder brother.

Under Ka Ting, there is no room for dissent as he has an iron grip over the party after been an apprentice to Tun Ling Liong Sik and muscling in the party for more than two decades.

Further he has the intimidating rough high handed help of Chan Kong Choy to execute his dirty moves. No one dare to go against the combined forces of the notorious Chan Kong Choy and the insidious Ong Ka Ting then.

Ka Ting had been alleged to be responsible for the infamous Three Men Killer squad purportedly consisting of Liow Tiong Lai, Wee Jeck Seng (his political secretary) and Tee Ann Chuan (an ex-convict given a special waiting room in Liow's ministry then). He had skillfully set up an inquiry to close the allegations of which the results of the inquiry had yet been allowed to see the light of day.

And now the man had carefully staged a comeback with the help of the powerful Chinese media who had been seen to be an active party to oust duly elected President Ong Tee Keat in a carefully calculated executed plan since the lost of his elder brother Ong Ka Chuan to his nemesis Chua Soi Lek.....