Game over for fresh polls
KUALA LUMPUR: Observers believe that the faction led by Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai which had pushed for fresh party polls knew it did not have enough support but plodded on to give an impression that it had wide grassroots backing.
Some party insiders observe that the first sign that the MCA vice-president and 12 other central committee members did not have the required support was when they decided to turn the MCA Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) called by them on Nov 28, last year, into a briefing session.
Liow’s faction had declared it had more than 1,300 delegates but a check by party headquarters showed that only about 600 central delegates attended, short of the one-third of the delegates required to pass any resolution at an EGM of the party, the insiders said.
One-third of MCA’s 2,400 central delegates means the number should be about 800 delegates.
Another sign which hinted that the group did not have the required numbers was when it agreed to the formation of the party’s re-election committee headed by party deputy president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek to look at the possibility of having fresh polls.
“By agreeing to that, it means that you are actually showing the card that you don’t have the numbers. If you have the numbers, you would not agree to it (the committee) and would just go ahead with the EGM to pave the way for fresh polls with the adoption of the specific resolution,” one of them said.
It appears that hopes for fresh polls in the MCA are dashed now that the all-powerful central committee (CC) has decided not to have any.
It’s game over for those who had harboured high hopes for this route to be taken to resolve the leadership crisis in the 61-year-old party.
However, technically, fresh polls still can be held if two-thirds of the CC members were to resign, the sentiment for this has somewhat been lost.
It was very simple why the plan stalled – not many CC members were keen to relinquish their lofty positions.
One CC member said that during Friday’s CC meeting, Liow kept arguing that the party should fix the date for fresh polls.
But other CC members noted that the party could not fix a date for fresh polls as the proponents for the move did not have the required number of members to do so.
“The truth is that the party re-election committee said there were not enough numbers of CC members agreeing to resign to push for fresh polls,” said another CC member.
Another CC member, Eng Hiap Boon, said the push for fresh polls had waned, adding that Liow’s group should accept the re-election committee’s findings tabled at Friday’s meeting that there was not enough quorum to call for fresh polls.
“This is a numbers game. If you don’t have the numbers, you can’t have it, that’s all.”
His view was shared by another CC member, Datuk Ti Lian Ker, who said fresh polls were a non-issue from now on because the proponents had not been able to muster enough support.
“The issue is now closed. We can’t allow the party to stand still for most of the time for the pre-condition for fresh polls to be fulfilled. The party needs to move on,” he said.
Datuk Chong Itt Chew, also a CC member, said he noticed that there was also a “split” among the group of the 13 CC members who originally wanted fresh polls as some of them indicated that they wanted to withdraw their undated resignation letters addressed earlier to party secretary-general Datuk Wong Foon Meng.
He said the split surfaced when a call by one of the CC members who had pressed for fresh polls to stage a walk out en masse at the CC meeting on Friday did not receive strong support as only three out of 13 in the faction left the meeting.
Party veteran Datuk Yap Pian Hon said he believed that there was a possibility that Liow may eventually come back and support the party’s leadership after his failed attempt to push for fresh polls.
“I see how he has joined hands with the president (Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat) when the party held a dialogue with Hua Zong (Federation of Chinese Associations, Malaysia) on Friday. Both of them shook hands,” he said.
Yap said Ong had all this while said that “his door is always open to Liow”.
For most of the party leaders and political analysts, the most significant outcome from the CC meeting was not much about the party’s decision not to hold fresh polls but the appointment of new national organising secretary Simon Lim, who is also political secretary to Transport Minister Ong, and Tee Siew Keong, Dr Chua’s former political secretary as deputy national organising secretary.
“The message is very clear that Ong wants to push for direct presidential elections and make the necessary changes to the party constitution. He put the people he trusted most to hold key positions to get this proposal implemented. We can expect that the party election next year is likely to be based on this new system,” he said. – Bernama
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