Chua should resign over his unsavvy comments

January 2, 2013
FMT LETTER: From Stephen Ng, via e-mail







MCA president, Chua Soi Lek, is a man lacking in credibility as a leader, and should not have been elected in the first place to lead the Chinese party in Malaysia. He recently blamed pro-Umno bloggers for publishing remarks he made against former president Ong Tee Keat.

Instead of blaming it on others, he should reflect on his own character to see if he is suitable to lead the BN component party. If he did not mean what he said, he should not have said it during the meeting with pro-Umno bloggers.

As a supposedly political savvy man, he should realise who he was speaking to, unless he is telling us that he is so “green” in handling the bloggers. In short, there is a saying, “No point crying over spilt milk.”

Like journalists, these are no ordinary people who would take such admonishments, as “Please do not publish my remarks”. If there is a scoop, they would not hesitate to use it; otherwise, who would read a dry piece of interview article?

As a public person, Chua should realise that his own reputation as a leader and president of MCA is important. Whatever he said about Ong Tee Keat in private will be published publicly, and this would of course attract the former MCA president to react. This is the Law of the Universe: Action and Reaction. I am sure Chua knows this, doesn’t he?

As an observer, I would like to suggest to Chua to withdraw himself as the president of MCA, given that the entire episode of his extramarital affairs had been exposed and this has cost him and the MCA a lot of goodwill.

Although he is now the elected president of the party, I believe the majority of the Chinese community, especially the professionals, would prefer him not to further tarnish the good reputation of the Chinese community in this country, who seek to be good citizens.

Chua should take the cue from former US president, Bill Clinton, and many others, not to return to the public arena after his extra-marital affairs was exposed. To safeguard his own reputation and the sanctity of public offices, till today, Clinton has never sought to campaign for any public office or remained as president of his own party.

Chua should choose the honourable path by resigning as party president, if he wants MCA to be relevant to the Chinese community in this country. I respected his decision to resign all posts when the affairs was first exposed, but then, he should not have made a comeback in a power struggle in MCA.

Although this may be my personal opinion, I believe a number of other people reading this letter would also agree with me, that for too long, the Chinese community in this country has not seen a leader who truly represents their voices.

In fact, what we need is not a political leader based on race, but a prime minister who has proven himself over the years that he has the tenacity to face all sorts of challenges posed to him and his family. It is time now, or never.

Truly, if MCA lost badly in the next general election, Chua has no one to blame but himself for taking on the helm of the party when there could be others more credible than him to take over leadership of MCA. It should keep to its vows not to field its candidates in the cabinet, because the party has already lost grounds with the Chinese in this country.

As we are moving forward in our way of thinking, the party is too entrenched with its New Village mentality. Unless MCA is prepared for the change, it would become archaic, and irrelevant to an increasingly politically-aware nation.

The former Health minister can still gripe over being served coffee in a polystyrene cup after an official event he attended during his early months as Minister of Health, but if he continues to lead the MCA today, I have my reservations about the future of MCA in this country.

ORIGINAL POST : FreeMalaysiaToday