Tea washes out whisky team in preliminary round

By Shannon Teoh

Sept 7 — In the battle between factions led by the outgoing and previous president, it appears that the former has dealt a psychological blow in yesterday's MCA state-level elections.

The national level polls next month is widely speculated to be a clash of rival running mates whose presumptive Youth chief candidates have earned the teams their beverage-inspired monikers. President Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting's "tea" team is so named due to Datuk Wee Ka Siong's traditionalist attitude while former supremo Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik's son Datuk Ling Hee Leong's "eat, drink and be merry" tag has resulted in his team being dubbed the "whisky" team.

Yesterday's main staging ground for the proxy contests between tea and whisky were being held in the key states of Perak, Selangor and Johor which account for over 40% of delegates to the national level polls.

Ong's foot soldiers completed a clean sweep of their contests while the grassroot leaders for the whisky team had to drown their sorrows after coming home empty-handed.

The biggest blow was the defeat of Hee Leong in the Perak Youth chief election. Dr Mah Hang Soon, who trounced him 366 to 184, is said to be endorsed by Ong's brother and secretary-general Datuk Ong Ka Chuan.

This appears to validate talk that Perak MCA will not support anyone who goes up against Ka Chuan.

The result of this is that it appears Wee has a clear run for national Youth chief as Hee Leong said he would abide by his promise not to contest the post if he lost at state level.

A former aide to top MCA leaders and now a keen observer of the party said that the results showed that despite Ong being a lame duck president since announcing that he would not defend his presidency, he was still highly influential in the party.

This seems to bode well for presidential candidate Datuk Ong Tee Keat, as it is accepted that he has been endorsed by Ong as his successor.

Despite not having declared his candidacy, it is nearly a foregone conclusion that Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek will be whisky team's challenger for the No. 1 seat.

But given that his two supporters in his home state of Johor failed to become the Youth and Wanita chiefs, the swing of the battle appears clear-cut, at least to political analyst Khoo Kay Peng.

"Like it or not, morality is a key issue," he said, referring to Chua's sex DVD scandal, which led him to resign from all political positions in January.

"Delegates don't think that this is time for largesse but to be practical. The voting decision reflects a desire for direction and confidence. It's not that they believe that Soi Lek or Tee Keat is the better leader."

His assessment that the whisky team's image is too big a risk, as it may turn the party into a laughing stock in these uncertain times was shared by several others including a senior party leader.

"Soi Lek has to overcome the DVD scandal. It's tough to pick someone with a sex scandal as your president," he said.

Datuk Theng Book, head of the Save MCA campaign which sought to oust Ong as president, agrees that it is a battle of perception but insists that the national polls will still be a 50-50 fight.

"Youth level is a different ballgame. The delegates here are closer to the ground and today is about individual performances, not about whose team you're on," said Theng, who backed Chua in an interview with The Malaysian Insider.

Ling's team is also said to include a host of other senior leaders like current Wanita chief Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen who will run for vice-president and current vice-presidents Datuk Donald Lim Siang Chai and Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn.

Ong's group includes Datuk Liow Tiong Lai, who is running for vice-president.