Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| Sweeping changes to MIC candidates list? Posted: 29 Aug 2011 03:50 PM PDT Party sources reveal that several top guns are expected to be dropped as candidates for the next general election. (Free Malaysia Today) - MIC president G Palanivel is expected to make sweeping changes to the party's candidates list for the next general election, expected to be called within the next 18 months. Party sources reveal that the new president, who took the helm of the MIC late last year, will drop several top guns and nominate news faces to fill in the vacant slots. Sources say Palanivel has prepared a list of candidates to contest the nine parliamentary and 19 state assembly seat allocated to MIC under Barisan Nasional's seat sharing system. This follows a call by Deputy Prime Minister and deputy BN chief Muhyiddin Yassin who recently asked all component parties to prepare their list of candidates for the next general election. MIC is the third largest BN component party after Umno and MCA. The party's nine parliamentary seats are Tapah, Sungai Siput (both in Perak), Cameron Highlands (Pahang), Teluk Kemang (Negri Sembilan), Kota Raja, Kapar, Subang, Hulu Selangor (Selangor) and Segamat (Johor). The party suffered its worst general election setback in 2008, retaining only three of the nine parliamentary seats. Among those who lost their seats were then party chief S Samy Vellu and his former deputy Palanivel. Samy Vellu, the longest-serving MIC president prior to his retirement last year, lost in Sungai Siput while Palanivel lost the Hulu Selangor constituency. However, the Hulu Selangor parliamentary seat came back to BN through a by-election last year. For this by-election, the BN top leadership rejected Palanivel as a candidate and named former MIC information chief P Kamalanathan as the candidate. The reason given for Palanivel's rejection was because the ruling coalition wanted a "winnable" candidate. Palanivel eyeing Cameron Highlands? Party insiders reveal that the newly crowned MIC chief is now eyeing the Cameron Highlands parliamentary constituency replacing MIC vice-president SK Devamany, who is also deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department. "Palanivel intends to contest in Cameron Highlands… he considers it to be a winnable seat," said a party leader. He said although Palanivel is Selangor MIC chief, he has yet to gather enough grassroots support in the state for him to contest one of the four parliamentary seats allotted to MIC in Selangor. Another fear is that Palanivel will lose by contesting in Selangor as all the four seats – Subang, Kapar, Kota Raja and Hulu Selangor – are said to be "conquered" by Pakatan Rakyat. "Palanivel was previously eyeing the Sepang parliamentary seat. However, the idea was dropped after Umno refused to swap the seat with the Kota Raja parliamentary constituency," said the party source. Out of the nine parliamentary seats, only the Segamat seat looks like a good bet for MIC. Party deputy president and Human Resources Minister Dr S Subramaniam is expected to stay put to contest the seat. "Based on this, Palanivel needs a safe seat which would ensure a BN win. If he losses and Dr Subramaniam wins, Palanivel would have to vacate the presidency and that would effectively end his political fairytale," said a party insider. On another front, speculation is rife that M Saravanan, who is a deputy minister and MIC vice-president, will be shifted to the Kapar constituency. Saravanan, the Tapah MP, is also the Federal Territory MIC head. It is learnt that Perak State Legislative Assembly speaker and state MIC deputy chairman R Ganesan is being groomed to replace Saravanan in the Tapah constituency. The announcement by the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) that it will field its candidate in Kapar will turn the largest parliamentary constituency in the country in terms of voters, into a hot seat. "With MCLM in the fray, the Kapar seat would definitely be too close to call. Fielding a top gun like Saravanan would only brighten BN's chances of winning the seat," said a party insider. Sources also reveal that incumbent Kapar MP S Manikavasagam of PKR will not contest the seat in the next general election.
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| Posted: 29 Aug 2011 03:45 PM PDT 'In the eyes of many MCA members, Chua is a liability to the party'. (Free Malaysia Today) - In the second part of this interview, Stanley Koh talks about the relevance of MCA to the Chinese community and on other issues that may have an impact on the election performance of MCA, the second largest BN component party. Koh is a seasoned observer of MCA politics, having been the party's head of research unit. FMT: Why does MCA find it so difficult to convince the public that it is still relevant to the Chinese community? Is the rank and file still in a fighting spirit? Koh: You know, there is a Chinese saying: 'Bu dao Huang He xin bu si'. This is derived from the old Chinese belief that when a person dies, the spirit will have to cross the Yellow River (Huang He), and when the person discovers that the nails on his finger and toes have dropped off, the final reality of death is imminent. This is not the first time that MCA has come so close to political death. To many observers, Chua seems to be flogging a dead horse. There is also a Chinese saying about trying to save a dead horse as if it is alive. Politics has never been an exact science. You cannot push Chua into a test tube in order to delineate the shades of his honesty and integrity. Nevertheless, in the eyes of many MCA members, he is a liability to the party. They are saying in private that he has not lived up to his own pledges but is instead repeating the follies of Ong Ka Ting. Chua's "humble ant" manifesto promised, for instance, professional management of the party's key assets, including editorial independence at The Star. However, the board of The Star recently chose Fong Chan Onn, a party leader, as its chairman. Chua once accused Ong Tee Keat of abusing his tenure as president by surrounding himself with "yes men" and rewarding them with cars and chauffeurs. But isn't he doing the same thing? A party veteran took pains to explain to me that a political leader must think of himself as a public trustee and must carry himself accordingly. In other words, integrity and honesty are essential qualities in party leadership. To understand MCA's present predicament, we need to step back into the recent past. The result of the 2008 general election turned on the political heat for MCA. It was the worst electoral setback that the party had suffered since it was rocked to the core in 1969. Its then president Ong Ka Ting basically took the blame and stepped down soon after. There was a changing of the guards, but a leadership crisis soon followed, and this led to the extraordinary party election last year. The destiny of MCA is now in the hands of Chua who, after being sacked, made an extraordinary political climb to the top despite his sex scandal. If I may digress a bit, I have described Chua's political comeback as extraordinary. We know the party made possible for him what had seemed impossible. But many members of the public, with the sex scandal in mind, could not understand why the party had chosen him as president. We also know that Chua's success is not due to his popularity. Here is the only way I can explain it: there was a quietly orchestrated campaign to save the party, which inadvertently undermined both Ka Ting and Tee Keat. Of course, we can't ignore the fact that Tee Keat's own leadership weaknesses also speeded up his political demise. Chua is currently facing the litmus test of his leadership. He must steer his party towards an expected early national election. Many are asking the inevitable question: Will MCA survive after the next polls? Only time will tell.
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