Chua Soi Lek on verge of open challenge for MCA top job

Chua Soi Lek on verge of open challenge for MCA top job
Calls party chief Ong Ka Ting to say sorry for polls debacle and step down

Extracted from
The Malaysia Insider
http://69.64.71.184/mni/chua-soi-lek-on-verge-of-open-challenge-for-mca-top-job.html
By Leslie Lau

KUALA LUMPUR, April 16 — Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek has called for Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting to resign as MCA president because of the party’s poor performance in last month’s general elections.
The former Health Minister’s latest remarks come amid heightened pressure on Datuk Seri Ong as the second biggest party in the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition prepares for crucial party polls later this year.
“The only honourable thing for him to do is apologise to the party and then resign,” he told The Malaysian Insider.
Dr Chua’s political career appeared to have come to an ignominious end after a secretly-filmed video recording of him having sex with a “personal friend” was leaked out to the public last December.
He was forced to resign as minister and as MCA vice-president.
Amid swirling speculation, Datuk Seri Ong denied last week that he was responsible for the secret recording against his political rival in the party.

Dr Chua was said to be planning to mount a challenge for the top party job until the sex scandal put paid to such ambitions.
But the MCA’s poor performance in the elections have now given a fillip to Dr Chua and other party leaders opposed to Datuk Seri Ong.

“Yes I am thinking about whether or not to challenge him,” said Dr Chua. “But an old man like me thinks very slowly.”

Besides Dr Chua, another former MCA leader from Johor is also planning a tilt at the presidency. Datuk Seri Chua Jui Meng announced this week that he was planning another assault on the top party post after a previous failed attempt.

Just like its senior partner Umno, the MCA is going through intense soul searching, and will see epic tussles for control of the party. Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, the firebrand maverick party vice-president, is said to be considering a run for the deputy presidency. Wee Ka Siong is also expected to face off with Ling Hee Leong, the son of former Party president Tun Ling Liong Sik, for the Youth chief’s job.

But the most intriguing challenge must be from the 61-year old Dr Chua, the man who was written off before the elections and consigned to the scrapheap by his party.

Dr Chua told The Malaysian Insider that he was now reassessing the situation and would probably stop giving any more interviews, which in the past week he had used skilfully to put the pressure on his party president.

“My president is not a simple man to deal with,” he said. “The more you talk the more you expose yourself.”

He then quipped that for now he would “sleep in the daytime and move only at night.”
The MCA is certainly set for turbulent times ahead.