• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • RSS
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
The Nut Graph

The Nut Graph

Making Sense of Politics & Pop Culture

  • Projects
    • MP Watch
    • Found in Conversation
  • Current Issues
    • 6 Words
    • Commentary
    • Features
    • Found in Quotation
    • News
  • Columns
  • Interviews
    • Exclusives
    • Found in Malaysia
  • Multimedia
    • Audio
    • Pictures
    • Videos
  • Corrections
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Vault
    • Found in Translation

Chua: Tee Keat should resign

By Ding Jo-Ann

October 12, 2009

PETALING JAYA, 12 Oct 2009: Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek wants MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and all his appointed central committee members to resign following the no-confidence motion against Ong that was passed on 10 Oct.


Ong
Chua, the former MCA deputy president who has been openly at loggerheads with Ong since they were both elected at the party elections in October 2008, also said Ong should not chair the 15 Oct central committee meeting unless it was to announce his resignation.

Chua said Ong and his appointees should respect the decision of delegates at the party extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Saturday.

“He (Ong) has only been party president for less than one year. When he was elected, he had more than 60% support. In a year, this has deteriorated to 49%. He had a month to campaign [before the EGM], he had ministers and deputy ministers’ support. Yet, he still couldn’t defend the no-confidence motion,” said Chua.

“In this context, [Ong’s] credibility and integrity are involved, his moral standing as a leader. He should resign,” Chua said.

Chua said even though the MCA constitution requires a two-third majority in votes to remove a party official, given the circumstances, Ong should go to give the party a fresh start. The 1,155 no-confidence votes against Ong were about 360 votes short of the two-third majority.

Ong narrowly lost the no-confidence motion by a total of 14 votes at the EGM following Chua’s sacking from the party, which was later commuted to a four-year suspension. At the EGM, Chua was reinstated as a party member but not as deputy president.

Golden opportunity

Chua acknowledged that the MCA had turned into a “fractured party”, but disagreed that it could not recover.

“The MCA can recover as long as people who are there [in the party leadership] do the right thing for the sake of the party. This is a golden opportunity to put the party on the right footing. If they do the wrong thing, we will start all over again,” he said.


Chua
Chua said the message from the general assembly was clear: that party leaders must take the middle ground and not side any particular camp.

“If the different camps are accommodated, then this will be good. If they say, ‘This is an Ong Tee Keat [person], can appoint; this is a Chua Soi Lek [person], cannot appoint’, then that is not good,” Chua said.

Fresh elections needed

Chua called for fresh elections at the central committee level. He said that the leadership should reflect the MCA’s mission and should be worthy of respect, not just within the MCA but also among Chinese Malaysians and all other Malaysians.

Chua, however, refused to respond to repeated questions from the Chinese-, Malay- and English-language media on whether he would stand if fresh elections were called.

“How many times do you want to ask the question? When the party makes the decision whether to have new elections or not, then only you ask me. Don’t speculate, please,” Chua said.

“I am still a part of the MCA. I will continue to play my role as an ordinary member of the MCA to strengthen the party and the Barisan Nasional,” he said.

Ong has said in his blog that he respects the central delegates’ decision. He also said that he would act in the party’s best interests after consultation with colleagues and supporters, and after Thursday’s central committee meeting.

The Nut Graph needs your support

Filed Under: News

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. elaine says

    October 12, 2009 at 10:50 pm

    Mr Chua, you talk about moral standing and I wonder on what moral ground you are standing? Please answer the question first before you proceed, Mr Chua, or else it is just all rubbish. You should quit, too on moral grounds […].

  2. davis says

    October 14, 2009 at 1:41 pm

    Immoral mortals have the gumption to tell us what morality is. Indeed morality is subjective!

  3. KoMo.Tan says

    October 15, 2009 at 6:31 am

    I do not know much about Chua because I did not think his side of the story was worth following to begin with. But if anyone were to argue for Ong to stay now, it would be tantamount to belittling Ong himself, given his own words of playing by the morality rule.

  4. Andrew I says

    October 15, 2009 at 3:29 pm

    Yes, quite, Komo.Tan, especially since Ong bet the roof on winning the EGM vote. Weren’t the whole bunch supposed to resign if they lost?

    Sorry, Chin Huat, not quite the last show …

Primary Sidebar

Search

Recent Comments

  • Wave33 on The Nut Graph stops publication
  • Adam on The Nut Graph stops publication
  • PSTan on The Nut Graph stops publication
  • PSTan on The Nut Graph stops publication
  • Andre Lai on The Nut Graph stops publication

Recent News

  • The Nut Graph stops publication
  • Nasihat tentang sepupu yang mengganggu perasaan
  • Uncommon Sense with Wong Chin Huat: The Sunni-Shia split and the answer to Muslim unity
  • Why Malaysia needs the national unity bills
  • Challenging government in the digital age: Lessons from Kidex
  • Najib’s failure
  • Babi, anjing, pondan: Jijik orang Islam Malaysia
  • Kidex and the law – What the government’s not telling you
  • Beyond Dyana Sofya
  • Uncommon Sense with Wong Chin Huat: Does Malaysia need hate speech laws?

Tags

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Anwar Ibrahim Barisan Nasional BN Bukit Selambau by-election dap Deborah Loh Ding Jo-Ann Election Commission elections Found in Malaysia Found in Quotation Gan Pei Ling government high court Hishammuddin Hussein ISA islam Jacqueline Ann Surin Khairy Jamaluddin KW Mak Lim Guan Eng Malaysia MCA Menteri Besar MP Watch Muhyiddin Yassin muslim Najib Razak Pakatan Rakyat Parliament Parti Keadilan Rakyat pas Penang Perak PKR police politics prime minister Selangor Shanon Shah Umno Wong Chin Huat Zedeck Siew

Footer

  • About The Nut Graph
  • Who Are We?
  • Our Contributors
  • Past Contributors
  • Guest Contributors
  • Editorial Policy
  • Comments & Columns
  • Copyright Policy
  • Web Accessibility Policy
  • Privacy Policy
The Nut Graph

© 2025 The Nut Graph