Doesn’t the MCA Deserve to Eat Egg?
By Kee Thuan Chye
It was rather amusing to hear Selangor MCA chief Donald Lim Siang Chai appeal to Selangor voters not to let his party “eat egg”. By this, he meant not giving the MCA a score of zero at the impending general election.
In the 2008 general election, the MCA managed to win only two state seats – Kuala Kubu Baru and Sungai Pelek – and the sole parliamentary seat of Pandan, won by Ong Tee Keat. Lim is now worried that the MCA might lose even these.
Ong is certainly not on the favoured list of MCA President Chua Soi Lek, who has already announced a new candidate for Pandan. Chua did this despite the common belief that Ong is probably the best bet for winning the seat he has held for two terms. But the bad blood between him and Ong has obviously clouded his better judgement.
Perhaps that’s what troubles Donald Lim to the point of desperation. He should also know that the candidate named by Chua would most likely be coming up against PKR’s brilliant strategist Rafizi Ramli, who has gained untold popularity for exposing the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) scandal. Chua’s candidate is a 39-year-old lawyer named Gary Lim Chin Yee who is a virtual unknown; how could he measure up to someone like Rafizi?
Be that as it may, Donald Lim still appeared utterly pathetic when he said, “I hope the people will give us some votes. Don’t make us eat egg.” It showed an utter lack of confidence. Worse, it sounded like begging. Even “some votes” would do, from the sound of it!
If he was hoping to gain the sympathy of Selangor voters by resorting to begging, it was a big mistake. The response to it on online news websites and social media showed the opposite.
Disparaging comments included “They’ll get rotten eggs”, “Don’t give them eggs, just give them egg shells”, “We’ll offer sympathy and therapy AFTER we boot these fellas out”, “They’re not only going to eat egg, they’re also going into a museum” and “If MCA were to eat egg together with MIC and Umno, Malaysia would become a healthier country”.
Clearly, if Donald Lim were low in confidence, he should not have shown it publicly. Didn’t he think beforehand about how this would affect the morale of Selangor MCA members? Before the war has started, the chief is already asking for pity. How embarrassing. For this alone, the MCA surely deserves to eat egg.
To be sure, the prediction from men in the street is that the MCA faces the probability of losing more seats. Even Lee Hwa Beng, who was MCA’s Subang Jaya state assemblyman for two terms before being defeated by the tyro Loh Gwo Burne in 2008 when he stood in the parliamentary constituency of Kelana Jaya, is predicting a poorer showing.
Apparently disillusioned with Barisan Nasional (BN) after having chaired the investigations into the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal during which he must have seen a huge amount of corruption dirt related to it, Lee thinks the MCA could win at best 13 parliamentary seats and at worst only six. This falls short of its current hold on 15 seats.
It seems ironic that even for Chinese-majority seats, the MCA will have to depend on the votes of the Malays and Indians to save it, rather than those of the Chinese it claims to represent. But the reality is, and Lee acknowledges this, most Chinese have already given up on the MCA because they know it can’t stand up to the power of Umno. They are even willing to forgo Chinese representation in government should BN retain Putrajaya.
For most Chinese, too, the high corruption index that marks BN rule over the last few decades is the biggest reason to vote against it. As this is something they can no longer tolerate, they want to see an end to it by kicking BN out.
Perhaps sensing that this might actually happen, Umno veteran Daim Zainuddin has recently come out to persuade the Chinese not to punish BN and to appreciate the need for its continued rule. But coming from someone who was finance minister when corruption was allegedly rampant, this appeal borders on the ludicrous. Could he be saying this as a last-ditch effort to save BN?
At the same time, however, Daim expressed confidence that BN would win the general election – and even do better than in 2008.
This seems strange. Unless conditions have changed drastically within a year, this same Daim said in March 2012 that BN would expect easy victories only in Johor, Pahang and Melaka. Then, too, he said BN would face an uphill battle retaining Perak, but now he thinks BN has the upper hand.
Of course, politics can change in a matter of days, not to mention a year, and Daim is noted for his uncanny ability to gather reliable intelligence about voter sentiments, as was proven in 2008 when his predictions came true, but it could be that he’s doing the opposite of what Donald Lim is doing, i.e. painting an optimistic picture, in order to rally the BN troops and influence fence-sitters who prefer to go with the winning side.
That’s perhaps the better way to approach a war. Because even if you’re not sure you’re going to win, you have to make it look like you’re ready for one helluva fight. And if you don’t win in the end, it still won’t matter anyhow.
* Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the bestselling book No More Bullshit, Please, We’re All Malaysians, and the latest volume, Ask for No Bullshit, Get Some More!
