MCA still pushing for direct presidential election

2009/11/08

PUTRAJAYA: When Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat was elected MCA president over a year ago, he had proposed for a direct presidential election for the party but the plan became disrupted following some internal bickering.

And now with the party problems being resolved, Ong said he hoped that the agenda to realise the proposal would be back on track again.

"In order to win back support from the people, we need to revamp and rejuvenate the party. We mean business but unfortunately we have to admit this has been disrupted. Nonetheless, we choose to soldier on.

"I welcome any move in that direction. Whether we are the first or not to hold direct presidential elections is secondary as every party has its own priorities and problems to tackle," he told Bernama in a interview.

In explaining the delay, Ong said the party's membership list needed to be verified and audited first as there had been allegations of non-existent members.

He said there was also resistance to change within the party as some were still "deeply entrenched" with the thought that the party delegates should be the ones who elected the leaders and not any other members.

However, he regarded all this as "the labour pain of reform".

Ong also explained that in order to have a direct presidential election, the party must first embark on a revamp of the party machinery at the constituency level, which includeed registration of party members as voters.

"They may claim that they have x number of voters, but most of them are not there to vote. This will not serve any purpose," he said.

Therefore, he said, the party would continue to gather as much feedback as possible before finalising the mechanics of the direct election.

"Like many other political parties, MCA has all along adopted the proportional representation system. Larger divisions have more delegates represented in the general assembly compared with smaller ones. This has given rise to many powerful local leaders, or what some would term as "warlords", he said.

Ong said while the direct presidential election school of thought centred around the "one man one vote" principle, the party also needed to address the problems of logistics and come out with several other alternatives.

"We need to empower the members. When we explore the alternatives, perhaps we can do it in stages, before we can fulfill the one man one vote idea in the true sense. Maybe for a start, we can have a bigger base of electors.

"This is going to be finalised as soon as possible as it is crucial to the reform of the entire party," he said.

Ong said MCA had managed to achieve some progress in formulating and implementing party programmes, despite the tribulations in the party.

"It has been a bumpy year, not withstanding the leadership going through tests.

Nonetheless, the party still managed to translate certain ideas into action.

"They include the implementation of the HOPE and the TRAINS programmes," he said.

HOPE is a higher education initiative granting a second chance to those who cannot enter public universities to study in selected private colleges and universities at a discounted price.

TRAINS is a vocational initiative programme designed for early school leavers and those who are less academically inclined to take up technical courses. "This has been gaining momentum," Ong said.

Apart from that, he also said that the party had initiated "Town Hall" meetings where the leaders listened to the peoples'' woes -- such as fishermen complaining about the diesel quota and the palm oil windfall tax that affected smallholders.

These matters were then relayed to the Cabinet, said Ong. - Bernama