The Malaysian Insider | KUALA LUMPUR, 16-Nov-2009 — Corruption and abuse of power is the most important problem which needs to be solved, a new survey of voters in the country released today showed.

The survey by the independent Merdeka Center also showed a whopping 74 per cent of those polled were dissatisfied with the government’s handling of corruption and abuse of power issues.

Merdeka Center conducted the poll, commissioned by the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), between Sept 16 and Oct 12 this year, and has a margin of error of 2.78 per cent.

The poll was conducted before the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) charged a number of minor political figures and officials for corruption and abuse of power.

Among those polled, 52 per cent felt the country was headed in the right direction, while 47 per cent were of the opinion that Malaysia was headed in the wrong direction.

The economic recovery was cited as the main reason by those who felt the country was headed in the right direction.

For those who felt the country was going in the wrong direction, political instability and graft were listed as the top reasons.

A total of 13 per cent polled felt corruption and abuse of power was the most serious problem that needed addressing, followed by social problems at 12 per cent. Just 10 per cent thought crime and public safety was the country’s most pressing issue.

While 74 per cent were dissatisfied with the government’s handling of graft, a total of 67 per cent were also unhappy with how the administration dealt with social problems.

Among those surveyed, a very high 66 per cent were also dissatisfied with how crime and public safety were being addressed.

Unsurprisingly, 81 per cent of respondents felt corruption was a serious problem.

Notably, the kind of graft listed as most serious was petty corruption, with 42 per cent viewing it as “very serious.”

This was followed by nepotism (41 per cent), fraud (37 per cent), corruption among politicians (34 per cent), grand corruption (30 per cent) and administrative corruption (24 per cent).

An example of petty corruption faced by the public was given by a 24-year-old female in Kuala Lumpur who told of her experience when stopped by the police for a traffic offence.

“He asked how I wanted to settle it. Should it be ‘inside court’ or ‘outside court’,” she told the Merdeka Center.

The MACC was also perceived to be bias while one respondent pointed out that pinning an “Anti Rasuah” badge on the uniforms was ineffective.

Notably, one respondent pointed out that the Selangor Select Committee on Competency, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat) was “good because people now get to know what has happened in the past.”

On media reporting of corruption, 58 per cent could not name an incident of corruption that was widely reported in the media.

Of the 42 per cent who could, some 42 per cent cited the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.

This was followed by corruption among politicians (12 per cent), allegations about former Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Khir Toyo (eight per cent), Teoh Beng Hock/MACC (seven per cent) and money politics in Umno (six per cent).

The Malaysian Insider | 11-November-2009  — Some time ago I was interviewed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for a radio feature, and was asked about “… the creeping conservatism of (Islam) in Malaysia)…”. When I responded (to Kartika’s whipping) that this was what many Muslims wanted, even though they felt that an example should be made on the ruling elite who drank and led corrupt and un-Islamic lifestyles, Kartika’s punishment was apt. True Muslims would not or dare err.

I also mentioned that many Muslims believe fervently that by having an Islamic state, the rights and freedoms of non-Muslims will be protected. A prime example of that would be Kelantan. Nobody is stopping them from attending concerts, and so forth. It is just the impressionable young and liberal Malays who want to attend these events and lead “… a hedonistic Western lifestyle…”

I said all this with confidence, because this was what I have observed and been told by my peers. And they were not uneducated and unexposed hicks; my peers have been educated abroad and are successful professionals.

When it comes to the Western media, and so-called “progressive”, “liberal” Muslims, their idea of Islam is different from the grassroots’ idea of their faith. I have been accused of being a relativist; I beg to differ. I’m a realist.

While this country’s Constitution says Malaysia’s official religion is Islam and that Malays are constitutionalised Muslims, and that Malaysia is not an Islamic state, Muslims in Malaysia, especially Malay-Muslims, do not see a demarcation of the state and faith.

Zulkifli Noordin may be an anomaly to secularists and human rights activists, but there are many Zulkifli Noordins in this country. This is not a pessimistic view of faith in Malaysia: this is a realistic view of Malaysia’s Islam.

In a joint study conducted by Merdeka Center and the Asia Foundation, “National Youth Survey 2008”, it was discovered that religious identity was very important to youth today. Thirty-eight per cent would identify themselves as a follower of a certain religion. Identification as Muslim was very important to Malay respondents. Among the Malays, 62 per cent chose to be identified as a Muslim but Muslim Bumiputeras from Sabah and Sarawak preferred to be identified as Malaysians where three in five Muslim Bumiputeras wanted to first call themselves Malaysians. The new generation of observant Muslims are more conscious of their faith than their parents and older generations.

So, who speaks for Islam, globally and in Malaysia?

Anyone who can think and communicate, despite his or her Islamic leanings.

Your Islam may not be my idea of Islam.

One interesting example to see how one version of Islam can be misconstrued is a feature which appeared in the Huffington Post on Oct 24. Dalia Mogahed, executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, recounted her television interview on Muslimah Dilema as “…unpleasant surprise, I found out on air that I was joined by a member of Hizbul Tahrir (HT), a marginal but controversial group which denounces Western democracy and calls for the creation of a pan-Islamic state in the Muslim world.”

“The HT representative on the programme dismissed or ‘reinterpreted’ findings I presented so as to not challenge the group’s simplistic utopian ideology which holds liberty in contempt as morally decadent. For example, as I regularly report, our research shows that far from denouncing democracy, Muslims around the world say it is among the things they most admire about the West, specifically mentioning ‘liberty’ as a desirable attribute. Around the world, from Morocco to Malaysia, Muslim respondents described their respect for much of what the West holds dear: freedom of the press, the rule of law, and transparency and accountability of government.

“To them, my crime was that I reported that many Muslim women wanted sharia as a source of legislation. I also explained that Muslim women surveyed by Gallup said they believed they should have access to equal legal rights, free employment, voting without family influence, and even leadership positions in government. This suggests that many Muslim women see sharia differently from those who use it to deny women rights. For simply stating the results of the survey research, I stood accused of ‘endorsing’ Taliban-like rule, and downplaying the abuses done in the name of sharia.”

The law of relativity, et tu?

In Malaysia, the way I see it, the main concerns about the practice of Islam are (1) Muslims in Malaysia are generally from the Sunni school of thought and (2) we are not allowed to challenge and question ulamas.

But in an increasingly pluralistic Muslim Malaysia — we have minority Muslims such as the Shiites, the Ahmadiyyahs (though this may be contested greatly even by progressive Muslims as we believe the Last Messenger was Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and in the Second Coming of Christ, while the Ahmadiyyahs believe that the latter will not happen and Christ or Isa has been “reincarnated” in their “prophet” Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. More on the Ahmadiyyahs in subsequent articles) and a growing number of Chinese and Indian Muslims as well as the Muslim migrant community — there will be clashes and different interpretations of Islam. Does that make them any less Muslim than the majority? Is the majority correct? Reading the Malay tabloids and newspapers already shows that some of the majority follow rather strange… leaders or prophets of Islam!

Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin’s rather dramatic religious adventure should be taken positively. The fact that such a personality has challenged the authority of a long-established elite, and given us Muslims the permission to think is a minor revolution, so to speak. (On this note: does this mean that the local neighbourhood ustaz is no longer allowed to lecture and talk about Islam in the private homes of his constituency?)

We still have a long way to go. We have yet to reconcile our religion on racial lines: Malay Muslims versus Chinese Muslims and Indian Muslims (who are not considered Bumiputera by the way), for example. There is a chasm among the minority liberals, and factions among conservative Muslims. We must also remember that there have been political and ideological differences in Islam, which has enriched and also embittered Muslims throughout time. If you read John Esposito’s book “Who Speaks For Islam”, the Muslims surveyed come from different backgrounds. There is only one Islam — all these labels have been created to belittle opponents and ridicule them.

So who speaks for Islam in Malaysia?

All of us.

Now if we can only agree to disagree.

The Malaysian Insider | KUALA LUMPUR, 09-Nov-2009 — When the Pakatan Rakyat government in Perak was unseated through defections in February, the local people were clearly unhappy.

But just how unhappy?

The independent pollster, Merdeka Centre, did a survey in the state to find out.

Its poll found that half the Malay respondents believed the palace’s decision to install a Barisan Nasional (BN) government, instead of calling for fresh polls, was in line with the people’s wishes. In contrast, a whopping 82 per cent of the Chinese said it was not. That would have been that, except for the oddest twist of fate.

A Perak MP died of a heart attack, triggering a by-election in Bukit Gantang two months later.

The election result tallied with the survey findings. The Malay vote for the BN came in at around 55 per cent, while the Chinese support was a low 22 per cent. It rarely happens as neatly as this, but this was one example of how polling can be a fair measure of the Malaysian political pulse.

Political polling is still fairly new in Malaysia, although there has always been some form of pulse-checking. Umno, for instance, had grassroots systems which had one party member taking care of 10 voters in their village. This used to be very effective. But that system broke down spectacularly in last year’s general election.

The BN did not have an inkling of the massive ground shift that dealt it the worst electoral showing in 50 years. Its village methods had failed in an urban setting — and more than 60 per cent of Malaysians now live in urban centres.

That was when independent polling received a boost as it appeared more reliable than in-house sources and party intelligence. Even before the general election, Merdeka Centre had published several surveys that revealed a sense of Chinese and Indian unhappiness. Not enough attention was paid to the findings, and the BN paid a heavy price in terms of seats.

“Polling is extremely important so that you don’t risk fooling yourself with internal bias. That said, it can still be a challenge to base decisions on poll results because of other pressures,” said Nelleita Omar, managing director of Vox Malaysia.

Vox Malaysia is the newest polling and consulting firm in the country. It is run by ex-policy staffers from former premier Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s office.

The interest in poll data is certainly noticeable now. Ibrahim Suffian, director of Merdeka Centre, said there was a surge of interest immediately after last year’s March 8 general election. Shell- shocked political parties were scrambling for answers, and the public also sought to make sense of the topsy-turvy landscape. This started to change public discourse.

“People were not clear about the mood before. But when we started to publish our surveys, it changed the debate because there’s now the ability to quantify sentiments,” said Ibrahim.

It does seep into the debate, going by the chatter online. People may not discuss surveys, but the data they provide helps shape arguments to some extent. But polling, which is still in its infancy in Malaysia, does not yet have the reach to influence public opinion. The impact on public policymakers is also relatively low, compared to, say, private companies which have wide experience with using polling data to position their products.

“In politics, it’s a lot harder. The span of products, if you like, is very wide. But it’s the same principle, you have to find the key issues and zoom in,” said Nelleita.

She said while polling had become more visible in recent years, there is still a gap between retrieving data and using it to structure policies.

It is the political parties that have begun to use the data strategically. DAP election strategist Liew Chin Tong said while they realise it is not an exact science, polls can yield useful information if they are properly done and interpreted. “It’s a snapshot at a particular time, and political sentiment is notoriously fluid. But if it’s consistently monitored, it can be a fair reflection of ground feeling,” he said.

In the last general election, Liew said, the opposition parties had taken several good decisions partly influenced by polling data.

One, the three parties decided not to form a coalition then but to work together in an electoral pact. Polling had indicated that voters were not ready for an official alliance but also did not want the opposition to fight one another. Two, the parties avoided campaigning on a platform of winning federal power because surveys showed that this would discomfit voters. Both strategies worked.

“It’s not good to be too dependent on polls as they are never accurate, but they can show part of the picture and be one of the many tools,” said Liew.

The accuracy of polling is always an issue, of course. That depends largely on the expertise with which it is carried out, the frequency, and the skill in reading the data. Still, it looks like political polling is here to stay — and grow. As Ibrahim noted, the 2008 election has changed the Malaysian mindset significantly. There’s a distinct loosening of what he called “brand loyalty”.

“People look for quality, and that has changed the way politicians have to react to them,” he said.

Malaysians have also become more vocal, and pollsters see far less of the frustrating blank looks and shrugs in response to surveys. Everyone has an opinion now; the question is how to read it. — The Straits Times

The Star Online | PETALING JAYA, 09-October-2009 : A Merdeka Centre poll found that MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat was the preferred choice to lead the party instead of suspended deputy president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek.

Almost one third (32.2% ) of the 273 respondents from the Chinese community indicated that they preferred Ong over Dr Chua who polled 5.1%.

Among the 146 Chinese respondents who said they cared about the MCA problem, 60% of them said their choice was Ong while 9.6% wanted Dr Chua.

The Merdeka Centre polled a total of 846 respondents of all races, who were asked for their views about leaders who were corrupt and marred by scandals.

It found that 64% of them strongly disagreed that a leader tainted by sex scandal could lead a major political party while 76% strongly disagreed that a leader charged with money politics in party elections should be allowed to contest in a by-election or general election.

The poll also asked for their perception of the problems faced by the MCA to which 64% of all Chinese respondents felt that it was an internal affair of the party. Asked on their views on MCA’s reforms, 39% of the 846 respondents in peninsular Malaysia felt that its leaders should give priority to resolving the in-fighting.

Another 27% of the respondents wanted the party to focus on regaining the confidence of all Malaysians, while 10% of them wanted the party to win back the confidence of the Chinese community.

The poll also touched on Barisan Nasional reforms, the PKFZ controversy and perceptions of Pakatan Rakyat. The respondents also felt that MCA leaders should concentrate on resolving in-fighting in the party the most.

About 34% of the respondents felt that unless Umno carried out reforms extensively, changes in other component parties would mean little.

Channel News Asia | KUALA LUMPUR, 08-October-2009 : Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s popularity ratings have dropped, according to a poll released on Thursday which indicated that excitement over his appointment six months ago had faded.

The Merdeka Centre research firm said that 56 per cent of 1,027 people surveyed were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with Najib’s performance as premier, down from the 65 per cent support he enjoyed in June.

The boost in his polls numbers in June had been attributed to a series of economic reforms, and an olive branch extended to ethnic minorities in the multicultural nation during his first 100 days in office.

“People are settling down after the initial euphoria over a new prime minister when he made a lot of announcements,” Merdeka Centre director Ibrahim Suffian told AFP.

Ibrahim said the ruling coalition now needs a boost from a victory in a by-election this weekend, when it is seeking to break a winning streak by the opposition which has won seven out of eight special votes held over the past year.

The seat of Bagan Pinang in the parliament of central Negri Sembilan state is currently held by Najib’s coalition, and it is credited with a strong chance of retaining the seat.

The opposition will be represented by a candidate from the conservative Islamic party PAS, one of three component parties in the alliance.

The Merdeka Centre survey showed Najib’s support had fallen among all ethnic groups in Malaysia, which is dominated by majority Muslim Malays, but also home to large ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.

Najib has been partly dismantling a decades-old system of positive discrimination for Malays, who enjoyed benefits in education, housing and jobs, which had previously been seen as a political taboo.

He has also said that he is intent on reclaiming the support of minorities, who shifted to the opposition in elections a year ago which dealt the ruling coalition its worst results in half a century.

– AFP/so

Sin Chew Jit Poh | KUALA LUMPUR, 08-October-2009 (The Malaysian Insider) — Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s approval rating has fallen slightly, with 56 per cent of Malaysians satisfied with his performance as Prime Minister, compared with a high of 65 per cent in June, according to a new poll released today.

The poll, conducted by the independent Merdeka Center to mark Najib’s sixth month as PM, showed that many Malaysians found his efforts at reducing corruption and crime still wanting.

But a majority of those polled are satisfied with Najib’s efforts in improving the education system, managing the economy and raising government efficiency.

Overall, the survey found that the number of people dissatisfied with Najib’s performance as PM remained about the same at 23 per cent, compared with 22 per cent in June.

The Merdeka Center said the poll was conducted by telephone among 1027 randomly selected registered voters from Sept 4-14. The margin of error is 3.06 per cent.

A total of 60 per cent of the respondents were Malay, 30 per cent Chinese and nine per cent Indians.

Overall, 47 per cent of respondents felt the country was headed in the right direction and 34 per cent said it was headed in the wrong direction. The rest, at 19 per cent, did not respond.

Broken down along race lines, 59 per cent of Malays felt the country was headed in the right direction, compared with 18 per cent of Chinese and 70 per cent of Indians.

On the PM’s job approval rating, 64 per cent of Malay voters were satisfied, with 21 per cent dissatisfied while 15 per cent did not respond.

Among the Chinese respondents, 36 per cent were satisfied with Najib, 25 per cent dissatisfied while 38 per cent did not respond.

Among Indians, 68 per cent were satisfied, 27 per cent dissatisfied while five per cent did not respond.

A total of 48 per cent of respondents were dissatisfied with Najib’s efforts in reducing the crime rate with only 39 per cent satisfied.

On efforts to reduce corruption, 50 per cent were dissatisfied while only 35 per cent were satisfied.

Najib scored better in the areas of education, the economy and improving government efficiency.

Among respondents, 56 per cent were satisfied with his performance in improving the education system, compared with 29 per cent who were dissatisfied.

On improving government efficiency, 54 per cent of respondents were satisfied while only 29 per cent were dissatisfied.

A total of 52 per cent of respondents were happy with Najib’s handling of the economy with only 30 per cent dissatisfied. (By Leslie Lau/ The Malaysian Insider)

08-October-2009, The Malaysian Insider | KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 – A majority of voters in peninsular Malaysia remain unconvinced Pakatan Rakyat (PR) is a viable alternative to Barisan Nasional (BN) to rule the country at federal level although they are largely satisfied with the way states under the fledgling coalition is being administered, a new poll shows.

The poll conducted by the independent Merdeka Center from Sept 29-Oct 4 showed 47 per cent of registered voters in peninsular Malaysia were unconvinced PR was a viable alternative to BN while 32 per cent are convinced.

However, 21 per cent of respondents did not offer a response, suggesting a large swing vote was still up for grabs.

The Merdeka Center poll also suggests that Malay voters tipped the balance against PR in the survey, with 56 per cent of respondents from the community unconvinced by PR compared with just 25 per cent who thought PR could rule at federal level. A total of 19 per cent of Malay voters did not respond.

A majority of Chinese and Indian voters, however, were convinced PR could be a viable alternative to BN. Some 43 per cent of Chinese respondents and 42 per cent of Indian voters are convinced with PR. However, 31 per cent of Chinese voters and 38 per cent of Indian respondents remain unconvinced with PR.

The survey also suggested that even in states with strong PR support, voters were not convinced the alliance could rule at federal level.

In Kuala Lumpur, where the majority of MPs are from PR, 57 per cent of respondents were unconvinced with PR with only 28 per cent convinced.

In Kelantan, ruled by PAS since 1990, just 38 per cent of respondents from the state were convinced a PR federal government was viable compared with 41 per cent of voters who did not.

Only in Penang, which is now ruled by a DAP-led PR government, were a majority of voters convinced a PR federal government was viable. A total of 49 per cent of respondents in Penang were convinced compared with 30 per cent who were not.

The picture was more positive for the PR coalition at state level. Overall, 46 per cent of respondents were satisfied with the performance of the four PR state governments in Penang, Kedah, Kelantan and Selangor. Some 34 per cent are dissatisfied while 20 per cent did not respond.

Broken down along state lines, PR’s approval rating as state administrators was 56 per cent in Penang, 52 per cent in Selangor, 50 per cent in Kelantan and 48 per cent in Kedah.

In Perak, which is now a BN state following the February power grab, 42 per cent of respondents there were satisfied with PR’s performance in states it still controls.

In Kuala Lumpur, which has no state government, 61 per cent believed PR was doing a satisfactory job at state level.

Along ethnic lines, only 33 per cent of Malay respondents were satisfied with PR state governments, compared with 47 per cent who were dissatisfied. A total of 65 per cent of Chinese respondents were happy with PR state governments while 58 per cent of Indian voters were satisfied.

According to the Merdeka Center, a total of 846 registered voters were randomly selected for the poll. The margin of error was 3.4 per cent.

By Leslie Lau
Consultant Editor

The Malaysian Insider | KUALA LUMPUR, 08-October-2009 – Prime Minister Najib Razak heads into his party’s annual meeting next week promising reforms to stem corruption in a bid to reignite the waning appeal of a government that has ruled for 52 years.

Najib is also hoping for victory on Sunday in a safe state seat to stem a series of by-election losses his governing coalition has suffered since last year’s poll debacle, in which it stumbled to record losses in national and state polls.

Umno will applaud Najib if a former Cabinet minister, sacked in 2004 for buying votes, wins the seat – before they turn their attention to party reforms aimed at eliminating the kind of “money politics” and corruption that has long tainted Umno’s image.

Corruption has seen a generation of young Malays desert Umno, the party of their parents, in favour of the Pan Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), which promotes both an Islamic state and a strong anti-graft stance in this ethnically mixed Southeast Asian nation of 27 million people.

Although Najib, who has enacted economic reforms to boost foreign investment, initially saw a spike in his approval ratings to 65 per cent in July from 42 per cent before he took office in April, those numbers have not held up.

A poll by the independent Merdeka Center published on Friday showed Najib’s rating had fallen to 56 per cent in September and there are few signs younger voters are now embracing Umno.

“Now that another Malay party (PAS) is in power, they (Umno) seem to be sabotaging them, creating all sort of problems,” said Yusuff Ismail, a 35-year old sales clerk in northwestern Kedah state, one of the four states to fall to the opposition in 2008.

“This divides the Malays more,” Yusuff said. “More people will vote for PAS because at least we know they are cleaner.”

While Najib’s economic reforms have chipped away at a three-decade old affirmative action programme that gives Malays – 55 per cent of the population – preferences in company ownership, government contracts, education and housing, tough areas have not yet been touched.

The government has recently been hit by a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal over the construction of a free trade zone in the country’s biggest port. Critics have charged it has been covered up.
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“What worries me is that Najib worries there could be more (corruption) incidents in Umno. Then it will be a problem he can’t control,” said a senior Umno official who leads one of the party’s 191 divisions, the frontline units of Malaysia’s biggest mass political party.

MONEY HAS NOT FOLLOWED PRAISE

Najib, who has pledged to return Malaysia to six per cent annual economic growth and to draw in more foreign investment, has won plaudits from investment banks for the economic reforms he has announced so far.

These reforms include reducing requirements that Malays own 30 per cent of listed companies, opening up the insurance and fund management industry and other service sectors.

While praise has flowed, money has not and foreign ownership of the equity market remains mired at a touch over 20 per cent, according to stock market data, its lowest level since the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

An Oct 4 report from Deutsche Bank noted that despite what it termed “bold” reforms from Najib, some investors had reduced Malaysia’s equity market, once a regional leader, to a “rounding error” when making their portfolio allocations.

“Politics matters more than ever for this market, especially when investors’ confidence in Indonesia’s political system has improved significantly over the last month,” the report said.

Indonesia’s stock market is Asia’s best performing this year and has gained 86 per cent thanks to the re-election of reformist President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono while Malaysia’s market is Asia’s worst performing.

According to the Deutsche Bank report, government-related entities own 39.4 per cent of Malaysia’s equity market and that reduces the country’s attractiveness to fund managers.

Bolder reforms, such as moves to reduce the ownership of the state and state-linked pension funds in major companies, and slashing an overmanned civil service, will be much harder as they will have a direct impact on jobs for Malays, Umno’s voter base.

Bridget Welsh, a Malaysia expert at Singapore Management University, said bolder reforms risk alienating Umno’s core voters.

“The reason for the failure to bring about reform is Umno’s dependence on race and goodies for its survival.”

WEAKENED COALITION PARTNERS

Najib also faces huge problems rebuilding Umno’s coalition allies who also lost heavily in the 2008 elections.

The MCA, the second biggest government party, is mired in a leadership battle that will climax at a special party meeting this weekend.

The MIC has just been through a leadership fight and shows few signs it is reconnecting with its voters after being annihilated in the 2008 elections.

Ethnic Chinese account for around 25 per cent of the population and ethnic Indians around 8 per cent.

Najib has sought to defuse racial tensions by launching a racially inclusive campaign called “1 Malaysia”, dismissed by critics as little more than a branding exercise.

“The strategy is to pledge a yet unsubstantiated programme of ‘1 Malaysia’ while on the ground running campaigns based on the outdated model of race and money,” Welsh said.

The Umno leader does not see much chance the Barisan will fare any better at the 2013 general election than it did in 2008, raising the prospect of a prolonged period of political uncertainty that will further unnerve investors.

“I foresee there will not be a change of government, but it will not be a strong vote for both sides and that is bad for the country.” – Reuters

Bernama Online | KUALA LUMPUR, 08-Oct-2009 — As the MCA’s “triple 10” Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) approaches – at 10am on the 10th day of the 10th month this Saturday – many party insiders believe the 2,377-odd central delegates who would be voting in it have more or less made up their minds.

This is despite the emergence of a socalled “third force” which wants the delegates to reject both MCA President Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and suspended Deputy President Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek in Saturday’s EGM.

Talk about the “third force” emerged over the past few weeks but only Thursday did it surface at a press conference organised by Rasah Jaya branch chairman Tan Kah Choun.

Tan claimed the group had the backing of some central delegates as well as support from 13 former MCA leaders including Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik, Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting, Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy, Tan Sri Ting Chew Peh and Tan Sri Lee San Choon, although some of the leaders have denied their involvement.

Ting has openly denied that he is backing the group and was surprised that his name was implicated with it as its members had never contacted him to discuss about the matter.

“This is a baseless claim. It’s like fishing in murky water. I believe the delegates are mature, they know what to do. It is unfair, just because of their dispute, the two (Ong and Dr Chua) have to quit,” he said.

Despite this latest development, which some political observers believe was aimed to split the votes, some delegates said they had already made up their minds on what to do on that day but preferred to keep their choice close to their hearts.

“Most of us are already tired. We just want this to be over soon and the party move forward. You will know the result when we cast our votes this Saturday,” said a delegate from Johor.

MCA President Ong Tee Keat is said to have “taken the bull by the horns” when he sanctioned the Oct 10 EGM and accepted the five resolutions proposed by Dr Chua’s supporters to be tabled, which could see him being ousted along with his supporters.

Ong, who has been in crisis with Dr Chua since the party election last year, has to face the delegates who will judge whether his decisions were acceptable to the grassroots or otherwise.

However, recently, the party’s powerful decision making body, the Central Committee (CC), reduced Dr Chua’s sentence to just four years’ suspension but his supporters claimed this was unfair and vowed to overturn the decision at the EGM.

Some party delegates believe that the latest developments related to Port Klang Free Trade Zone (PKFZ) and news reports that claimed that Ong had been cleared from a RM10 million corruption case may favour him.

At least, in the public’s perception, Ong seems to be the person who should lead the party, as shown by the latest opinion poll released by Merdeka Centre For Opinion Research.

Titled “MCA political developments, BN reforms, PKFZ and perceptions on Pakatan Rakyat”, the result on the polls on MCA’s leadership showed overall Ong was favoured by 25.2 per cent of the 846 respondents to lead MCA as compared to only 5.8 per cent for Dr Chua.

The poll, which was carried out from Sept 29 Sept till Oct 4, also showed 32.2 per cent of its Chinese respondents preferred Ong to lead the party as compared to only 5.1 per cent who were in favour of Dr Chua.

However, Dr Chua’s supporters were still confident that they could win over the delegates, saying that “the response from the delegates is encouraging” and were heading toward a victory with all five motion being passed by the delegates.

The five resolutions are (1) a motion of no-confidence against Tee Keat (2) to annul the decision by the Presidential Council to expel Chua (3) to reinstate Chua as MCA Deputy President (4) to revoke any appointments including the Deputy President made before the EGM and (5) that no disciplinary action be taken against the EGM requisitionists.

Ong’s supporters claim the feedback from the ground was very clear as far as the first and second motions were concerned.

“I don’t think the no-confidence vote will be successful as many in the party want him to lead even though some of them don’t like him personally,” a party source said.

The same supporters said party members and delegates now had a better picture on what was going on in the party and support for him (Ong) had increased in the past week.

“The second resolution to annul the Presidential Council’s decision to sack Chua did not carry any more weight now as Dr Chua is only being suspended for four years.

“Before his suspension, the sentiments were strong and many delegates symphatised with Dr Chua, but after the CC decision, the situation changed,” the source added.

However, party insiders predicted the outcome of Saturday’s EGM would be razor thin as some delegates were not bothered with the outcome.

“We are concerned with the attendance rate. Some of the delegates have indicated that they might not attend,” a party insider said.

— BERNAMA