By Ho Kin Chai | 11:50AM Apr 13, 2013
Malaysiakini

COMMENT Following its poor performance in the 2008 general election, MCA is at the crossroad – to take the bull (its rival) by the horns or sink into the road of oblivion.

The current MCA leadership, particularly president Dr Chua Soi Lek, has failed to seize this opportunity to take on Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah.

Lim (left) has taken a bold gamble by thrusting himself into the traditional BN and MCA stronghold.

Johor is the backyard of MCA which won seven out of eight parliamentary seats it contested in 2008.

The DAP wrested Bakri, causing a dent. As the MCA president, Chua should seize this golden opportunity to take up this challenge.

By not taking up the challenge, he was sending a negative signal to its senior partner, Umno, and the MCA candidates and general membership.

Being the MCA supremo, he must rise up to the occasion to give Lim the strongest possible resistance.

Chua was reported to have said that he was a winnable candidate.

It is obvious that Lim is trying to create a momentum in the Pakatan Rakyat’s quest to wrest Putrajaya.

The 2008 general election showed that Johor was the last bastion of Umno and BN in Peninsular Malaysia.

Lim’s coattail effect for DAP

This is not the first that Lim has made such a bold move. Previously, he had left his safe seats – Kota Melaka, Petaling Jaya – to make inroads for the DAP in Penang as well as in Perak.

In each case, he had created a coat-tail effect for the other DAP candidates.

It was also true that Lim was not invincible. He was defeated by Gan Boon Leong in a state seat in Melaka.

In Penang, he had mixed results in his quest to wrest the state government.

His greatest prize was defeating the sitting Chief Minister Lim Chong Eu in the latter’s stronghold.

He defeated Koh Tsu Koon (right) in Tanjong parliamentary seat.

Perhaps, the lowest ebb of his political career was losing both the state seat (to Koh Tsu Koon in Tanjong Bungah) and Bukit Bendera parliamentary (to Chia Kwang Chye) in the same general election in 1999.

Lim did not fade away. In 2004, he made a comeback by ousting the MCA incumbent Thong Fah Chong in Ipoh Timor and the coattail effect helped M Kulasegaran to defeat Ho Cheong Sin in Ipoh Barat.

At 72, one would have thought he would retire as MP for Ipoh Timor. But Lim appears to think he still has an unfinished task to complete.

Gelang Patah was an MCA stronghold held by Johor Wanita MCA chief deputy national vice-chairperson Tan Ah Eng, who is not seeking re-election.

Signal to the Chinese community

It would be a shame that no MCA strongman has the courage to face Lim in the MCA stronghold. It would be a mockery for MCA to get an Umno strongman to defend its own fortress.

What sort of signal the MCA would be sending to the Chinese community?

If the party needs the Umno to defend its stronghold, it undermines the raison d’etre of its existence.

It also becomes an irrelevant partner or liability to the BN just as Italy’s National Fascist Party leader Benito Mussolini’s inability to hold southern front for Hitler in World War II.

A contest between Johor caretaker Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman (left) and Lim may carry an undesirable racial undertone.

The Chinese may view this as another attempt by Umno to interfere in the community’s democratic choice of its representative.

A defeat of Lim by Abdul Ghani will perhaps send him into political retirement in a glorious, if not dignified manner. It will further boost the image of the DAP as real champion of the Chinese community.

On the contrary, a defeat of Abdul Ghani by Lim will cause a big dent to the image and psyche of Umno – a very heavy price for Umno for pay.

To either man, it may not matter that much as they have reached the retirement age and they both can look back with pride as they have served their parties and the nation well.

HO KIN CHAI is a former journalist and lawyer. He is lecturing law and politics at a local university college.