(picked from themalaysianinsider.com) : http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/11359-longer-wait-for-mca
Longer wait for MCA
By Shannon Teoh
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 29 - The unrest in MCA over the party's Cabinet representation will continue for another fortnight.
This is because the party's newly central committee is not likely to meet until mid-November due to the travel schedule of MCA president Datuk Ong Tee Keat.
By then it will have been one month since tightly-contested party polls saw Ong voted in as president and Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek overcome a sex scandal to win the deputy presidency.
His brother Datuk Ong Ka Ting, the previous MCA president who backed Tee Keat in the recent elections, is lobbying for him to be also retained as the party secretary-general.
Caught in the middle of the tussle, Tee Keat has so far shown his indecisiveness by delaying the central committee meeting to discuss party appointments.
Now, because of work commitments, the decision will be delayed further.
Tee Keat is currently in Toulouse, France with Air Asia as part of his duties as Transport Minister and will next week be in Manila for a summit between Asean transport ministers.
"He will only have a couple of days before Manila," one of his staffers told The Malaysian Insider.
In the meantime, speculation over the appointment of a party secretary-general, state liaison chiefs as well as a likely Cabinet reshuffle will continue despite Tee Keat having called for patience while he gets "feedback from various quarters."
The polls saw former Health Minister Dr Chua beating Housing and Local Government Minister Ka Chuan to the deputy president's post while Deputy Home Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung and Deputy Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Teng Boon Soon also failed to be elected vice-president and central committee member respectively.
Dr Chua has refused to comment on whether he will return to the Cabinet and has gone so far as to put his blog on hiatus while awaiting the central committee meeting. Speaking to The Malaysian Insider, he said he himself did not know when the meeting would be and would "play the waiting game" for now.
As Dr Chua did not contest in the March 8 general elections, he would need to be appointed as Senator to be part of the Cabinet.
Failure to do so would "divide the party" insists grassroots leader Datuk Theng Book who is Puchong division deputy chairman.
Theng, who led Save MCA, a group that pushed for former president Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting to step down, said that the only excuse that could be given for Dr Chua not to be returned to Cabinet would be that there are no more vacancies in the Senate or that Barisan Nasional
could not accept the scandalised leader - both of which would still cause a rift in MCA.
Dr Chua had resigned all political posts after the revelation of a secretly recorded sex video clip in January.
However, if Dr Chua is left outside the Cabinet, it may free him to be more vocal and apply more pressure on Tee Keat with regards to issues.
As president and a Cabinet member, Tee Keat will be expected by BN to take a united BN stand.
Meanwhile, rumours still abound that Ka Chuan could be returned as secretary-general but most observers say that having been rejected by the party in the No 2 race, it would not be a wise move for Tee Keat.
Instead vice-president Datuk Liow Tiong Lai's name has been bandied about as a possible secretary-general. It would be a strange move for a vice-president and hence, would only solidify the idea that former deputy president Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy, said to have endorsed Liow in the party polls, is still wielding a strong influence in the party.
(above picked from http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/11359-longer-wait-for-mca)
--------------------------------------------------------
(get Malaysiakini to listed this)
No comments:
Post a Comment