A good article indeed. Ong Kian Ming, Tony Pua, Khairy, Rafizi and so on are the type of new generation leaders that will survive is the current politic climate. I believe school teachers, government servants, doctors, lawyers are no longer so suitable to be politician ("Old Gen"). Old Gen is suitable after Independence is because they has strong support from grass roots. By virtue of the Old Gen's profession who dealt directly with grass roots has given them advantage of others. In 1960s right up to 1980s, majority of Malaysian are poor, the demands from the grass roots are basic in terms food, place to stay, drainage problem, electricity and very domestic in nature.
Now Malaysia has grown moving to achieving developed nation by 2020, the Old Gen is no longer applicable. The country requires new generation of leaders who has vision and capable to look at wider scope of things to shape the future of the country. For me the domestic issue should be taken care by the local experts. We as voters should select someone that is intelligence enough to debate important issue in the Parliment but no handling domestic issues.
So the big question here is who knows the best about future of a country? The answer is god knows. Hence when a country is venturing into an unknown territory, the policy makers need to be open to debate about the pros and cons before the decision is made. Hence one of the key traits of new generation leader is ability to debate.
So CTY, please do not chicken out. step forward and show us your talent.
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November 22, 2012
NOV 22 — I had the opportunity to have lunch with Chua Tee Yong
(CTY, hereafter) before I joined the DAP. I was grateful for this
opportunity given that I had already written a few
less-than-complementary articles about his father, Dr Chua Soi Lek, in
his capacity as MCA president. I wanted to meet up with him because I
had been somewhat impressed by the manner in which he handled himself in
Parliament. He was articulate in his parliamentary replies and he
responded coolly and calmly to the supplementary questions thrown his
way. I thought that this MCA leader, in his capacity as the chairman of
his party’s Young Professionals Bureau, could raise the overall level of
political discourse by attracting more qualified young people to be
engaged in the political landscape. I never thought that less than a
year later he would instead drown in a puddle of his own making,
snuffing out whatever little hope his party had of rejuvenation and
regeneration.
The cause of CTY’s massive loss of what credibility he may have had
is well known — the so-called RM1 billion Talam “scandal”. When he first
announced this “scandal”, many of us in the opposition were worried
that he had actually uncovered an issue that could potentially sink the
Pakatan government in Selangor. He displayed tremendous confidence which
we now know was actually ignorance masked by cockiness. The utter
baselessness of his accusations has been exposed by my colleagues in
Pakatan. I don’t need to go into the details here except to say that he
has been faulting the Selangor Pakatan state government for trying to
retrieve debts owed to the state, something which the BN federal
government has failed to do time and again because of “obligations” to
cronies such as those behind the PKFZ scandal, the NFC scandal, the MAS
bailout, and a long list of other real scandals. The public at large,
with access to alternative sources of information, have also figured out
that CTY is barking and continues to bark up the wrong tree, especially
after the recent release by the Selangor state government of the Talam
White Paper.
What I will highlight is the utter disappointment that CTY has been
to the young people of Malaysia. The political landscape post-GE2008 had
been thrown wide open. Given his privileged position as a new MP who
had inherited his father’s seat in Labis, Johor, his rapid promotion to
the position of a deputy minister and the access to the resources of the
MCA and indirectly, the Star, CTY could have been a noteworthy young
leader in influencing the political landscape especially among young
Malaysians.
A small but growing number of young Malaysians were awakened
politically post-GE2008. Many of them were looking for direction, for
avenues to be more politically engaged and for young political leaders
who could inspire and perhaps even lead them. CTY could have positioned
himself as one of the key young BN leaders to watch by engaging in
thought leadership on the important issues of the day including
political reform and economic transformation, by taking on Pakatan on
substantive issues (read: NOT TALAM!), by building a team of young
aspiring leaders to renew his flagging party, by having meaningful
engagements and reaching out to the younger generation through the
strategic use of social media, by taking strategic contrarian positions
to set himself and his party apart from the larger BN infrastructure,
just to mention a few. I’m sure there are (hopefully!) many experienced
and politically savvy MCA leaders whose advice he could have followed in
order to take full advantage of the changed and changing political
landscape.
Disappointingly, instead of taking the bull by the horns and charting
out a new progressive direction of leadership, he has squander his
privileged position in the manner in which he handled the one issue that
will define him for many years to come — the non-scandal of
“Talamgate”.
The Talam issue is a financially complicated deal with many moving
parts. Even though I think there was no basis for CTY to use this issue
to attack the Selangor state government, he could have potentially
salvaged some pride and his reputation by at least agreeing to have a
debate with any one of the Pakatan MPs from Selangor who were more than
willing to take him on. If he was that convinced of his case and if he
was confident that he could convince the larger public, he should have
taken up one of the many offers made to him to have a public debate with
— Tony Pua, Teresa Kok, Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad and William Leong. By doing
so, he would have put himself in the firing line and perhaps come away
with some “street cred” for daring to take on some of these Pakatan
heavyweights. Instead, he chickened out. Worse yet, he failed to allow a
single Pakatan MP to be heard when the MCA organised a
discussion/debate on Talam because he insisted on debating with the
Selangor MB, Khalid Ibrahim (this is akin to Tony Pua wanting to debate
with the PM), who instead sent four able and willing representatives
(three Pakatan MPs and his political secretary) to answer CTY’s
allegations.
Perhaps he should have followed the example of some of his BN
colleagues who have responded to the changing political times. Umno
Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin does not seem to have an issue with
debating PKR’s director of strategy, Rafizi Ramli, not once but twice,
even though Rafizi does not hold any elected position within his party.
And Khairy regularly shares the same platform in panels and dialogue
sessions with younger Pakatan leaders such as Nurul Izzah, Tony Pua and
Anthony Loke.
Does CTY perceive his political stature to be above that of Khairy so
much so that these sorts of political engagements are beneath his
office? Or perhaps he thinks that such debates and dialogues are not
part of Malaysian culture? If so, he should take the lead of a fellow BN
deputy minister, Saifuddin Abdullah, currently deputy minister for
higher education. Saifuddin regularly engages not just with Pakatan
politicians but also many NGOs including youth groups from a wide
spectrum of society and political leanings. It is worth highlighting
that Khairy and Saifuddin have been working with MCA Senator Gan Peng
Sieu, who is also the deputy minister for youth and sports, rather than
CTY on making stands against certain government positions including
urging the government not to appeal the decision by the Court of Appeal
that section 15 of the Universities and Universities Colleges Act (UUCA)
is unconstitutional as well as making a stand against the controversial
amendment to section 114A of the Evidence Act.
CTY’s Talamgate attacks have negative political repercussions not
just for him but also for his party and the BN. The fact that an MCA
politician from Johor had to be “catapulted” to Selangor to lead the
charge against the Selangor government speaks volumes about the
confidence which Chua Soi Lek has in Selangor MCA chairman Donald Lim
Siang Chai. The fact that Chua Soi Lek has to use this channel to
promote his son also speaks volume about the leadership dynamics within
the MCA, especially with regard to the availability of young and
articulate leaders. Sadly, this is a reflection of a larger systemic
problem within the BN component parties, namely the lack of young,
inspiring thought leaders which has led to the ceding of more and more
political ground to the ever-dominant Umno.
Not that I should be complaining. CTY’s antics are definitely helping
convince the voting public that BN, especially the MCA, is a lost
cause. But from a perspective of someone who thinks that raising the
level of political discourse and increasing meaningful youth
participation in politics on both sides of the political divide is a
positive and necessary step for the country, CTY’s inability to take
advantage of his privileged position is very disappointing indeed.
* Ong Kian Ming is the DAP’s election strategist.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and
does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.
