MCA’s warring kingdoms at a glance

James Wong Wing On

Although one school of thought opines that MCA’s politics does not matter because it does not affect national policy making or implementation, another school remains passionate about what is going on in the second-largest ruling party in Malaysia, simply because of the sheer number of its membership and size. (more…)

Posted: June 15, 2005 Ulasan (0)

Does MCA politics really matter?

James Wong Wing On

A keen observer of Chinese Malaysian politics Phoon Weng Keong continues his analysis on the rise and fall of MCA’s presidents since the 1980s, and compares and contrasts the party’s turbulent history with the seeming stability of Gerakan and MIC. Phoon, however, opines that MCA, despite its many problems, is still relatively more democratic than Umno. (more…)

Posted: June 2, 2005 Ulasan (2)

Dissecting MCA politics

James Wong Wing On

For several weeks up to last weekend, the Malaysian Chinese Association’s (MCA) elections dominated space in local newspapers, in particular the Chinese-language dailies.

Contradictory impressions have emerged from the coverage. One common impression gained is that MCA is more democratic than the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) and the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC).

Umno seems to allow procedurally freer elections at all levels of the party, while the MIC is more autocratic and paternalistic.

However, there is also an observation that MCA’s ‘internal democracy’ has been plagued by money politics, triad connections, warlord-ism, phantom members and poison-pen letters. (more…)

Posted: June 1, 2005 Ulasan (1)