Is party election an opportunity to transform? – Sin Chew Daily
The chaotic MCA has finally completed its nomination and the mostconcerned battle for the party president post is going to be a three-corner fight as expected, and the candidates are incumbent party deputy president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, incumbent vice-president Gan Ping Sieu and former president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat.
The factions seem clearly divided, with the so-called Liow and Wee faction and Gan and Lim faction, which are evenly matched. As for Ong, it seems like he is just playing the role of participation.
The party election will be held under an embarrassing situation after the severe defeat in the general election and the adherence to not joining the Cabinet. However, it made the election more significant. All the three candidates have promised to lead the party out of the doldrums and towards reform. However, as signs showed possible collapse for the peace plan, the party’s greatest challenge now are, would the MCA be a reunited and revived phoenix after the election, or a fragmented dying party?
The party election has officially opened the prelude and the campaign strategies to be used by Liow, Gan and Ong are worth observing. It can be expected that reuniting the party under a new leadership core would be an unspoken common slogan.
The MCA, being ridiculed as "7-11" by the opposition, cannot afford further fragmentation and this should be a consensus of all MCA members. However, it is easy to shout the slogan but implementation would be another matter. Everyone knows the importance of unity but the problem is, what is the purpose of unity? What is the goal of unity? Is it for the interests of themselves and their respective factions, or the country and the people? Unity not serving the purpose of defending the interests of the country and the people will be no point at all.
MCA is a veteran political party with more than half a century of history and it had played a broad and significant role in the country's political field. The BN coalition has always been the winner of general elections. It formed the government as the ruling coalition and is directly involved in the implementation process of national policies. To a certain extent, it dominates and influences the development direction of the country's politics.
Under the strong dominance of Umno, however, the MCA's position in the government has gradually declined, causing strong dissatisfaction among the Chinese and as a result, Chinese voters renounced it, causing the party to be trapped in today's plight.
From the perspective of democratic development, we hope that all parties, including the ruling and opposition parties, are good parties.
We also hope that the MCA can revive, play the role of promoting social changes and progress, as well as draw and implement policies benefiting the country if it wins political power and take the responsible of overseeing the government if it fails to gain the ruling power.
The party election has provided members an opportunity to transform the party.
Amid the high sense of democracy today, whether MCA central delegates vote according the to "tradition" of choosing the faction, or vote beyond factions to choose a truly capable leadership based on their own political conscience and judgement, to make the party election more democratically significant, will determine the party's future, while setting an example for other political parties in the country.
Deepening democratic ideals within the party and improving party members' political conscience would be an unavoidable transition path for the MCA.
If they continue with a campaigning game neglecting ideologies and instead filled with personal attacks, discredit and disinformation, we will then be forced to watch a meaningless scrimmage and see how the MCA is going to sink further. – mysinchew.com, December 18, 2013.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.
source : the malaysian insider
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