Down Memory Lane

Amid The Hype Of Salutation: Liong Sik’s Record Revisited
29 Jul 2003 2:31am

On 26-7-2003, an elaborate salutation to Dr. Ling Liong Sik was held by MCA in its unprecedented tribute to the former party president. Does it mean that Dr. Ling whose public image was badly battered stands out as the greatest MCA president the Chinese party has ever had by the community standard?

STRATEGIST OR VILLAIN ?
Salutation to Dr. Ling Liong Sik, the immediate past president of MCA by his protégé-led party leadership would be glaringly incomplete without revisiting some of his past mistakes of grave magnitude, if not resurrecting his skeletons from the closet.

To the party members and public, it was Ling who dismembered the gigantic party investment arm, Multi-Purpose Holding Bhd in the name of raising fund to save the MCA Headquarters Building. It was also Ling’s initiative in subverting the party’s political culture through usurping the democratic rights of the delegates. Over the past 17 long years, each and every party poll was more or less single-handedly dictated by him in the name of practicing “menu politics” (ie: only pre-endorsed candidates sanctioned by the president are deemed winnable.) His party agenda, though always be trumpeted as never ending by Ling himself, was nevertheless comparable to that of any recreational clubs where fund raising and sing-along (karaoke) activities were the order of the day.

His loyalists and cronies have been portraying him as the master strategist in the party ever since he managed to thwart Lee Kim Sai’s bid to challenge him in the 1990 party poll. In the 1990’s, education was made his key selling point. Public donations were solicited nationwide time and again in the name of enlarging the capacities of TAR College as well as extending its wings to the various states. But to-date, no proper audited accounts had ever been produced for public scrutiny. To the party insiders, particularly the federal leaders, such information was equally unavailable and inaccessible, thus shrouding the public funds concerned with much secrecy.

BENEVOLENT OR UNSCRUPULOUS ?
Over the past 17 years under his stewardship, the way MCA had been handling public funds left much to be desired. The Langkawi Project which was Ling’s brainchild is just one of the many well remembered examples where no transparency had ever been practiced. At our hindsight, we notice that he had been habitually exploiting education as a tool to solicit funds from the public, particularly the Chinese community which is well known for its generosity to any form of educational development. Unfortunately such virtue has apparently been misplaced as it is not in the ethnic Chinese norms to demand transparency for monetary accounts related to public funds which are supposedly meant for a good cause.

In the late 1990’s, the outbreak of Nipah virus-related epidemic again gave rise to another opportunity which was later fully exploited by Ling to solicit public donation in the name of humanitarian aid. This Nipah-fund account had repeatedly been queried by the public, including the opposition party DAP as well as the family members of the epidemic victims who were said to be the targeted beneficiaries. Upon public query, Ling argued that the funds would be channeled to the party women’s wing headed by his female crony Ng Yen Yen for conducting “retraining courses ”for the victims’ widows. In other words, no cash had ever been dispensed to the victims’ families as was intended to.

The issue was unfortunately quick to be eclipsed by another public row over the long outstanding controversy on the Chang Ming Thien Foundation for the higher education following the public outburst by the MCA youth chief Ong Tee Keat in October 2000.

Tee Keat is known for his firebrand character and as a leading critic of Ling in the party. However his public remarks to remind the party on the necessity of practicing full transparency in handling the long outstanding issue was somewhat relatively mild. He was seen as having tampered his words with a mere “reminder” to the party so as the said controversy would not be exploited by the opposition parties in the impending general election. Nevertheless, that did not seem to have spared him from the party disciplinary action instituted by the then president (Dr. Ling Liong Sik) himself.

To Liong Sik and his party loyalists, the issue is now closed with all the allegations debunked following the release of an audited account. He reiterated that the initial principal sum of RM10m is intact and currently the total interest accrued stands at about RM 800,000. But much to their chagrin, this figure has been under fire and disputed by various quarters as the Foundation announced in Nov 1980 is estimated to have accrued a total interest of not less than RM30m based on the contemporary bank interest rates through the past two decades.

BEHIND THE MASK
Of course, all this could easily be attributed to the party decision in the name of collective responsibility. However, Ling Liong Sik was totally vulnerable, if not devastated when he was openly challenged by his former proxy Dato’ Soh Chee Wen. After having been a fugitive for about three years, Soh returned to the country in May 2002 and that marked the beginning of Ling’s nightmare.

Ling Liong Sik, now being revered and accorded salutation by the party, could never erase the fact that he had been repeatedly called “a liar” by Soh with substantiated allegations of corruption, heavy business involvement and leaking classified state information to foreign investors in the midst of deal making. Despite having been challenged openly by Soh to bring the latter to the court of laws in addition of instituting party disciplinary actions against him, Liong Sik had however been silent on such tirade. He merely dismissed this as his personal matters disregarding the magnitude of devastation and embarrassment caused to the party.

On this, a party veteran lamented that it was Liong Sik who deserved the disciplinary axe as the damage he caused to the party image is unprecedented. However, under the present MCA constitution, such disciplinary action could only be initiated by the president himself. ”Had Liong Sik been guilt-conscious, he would have relinquished his presidency long time ago,” said the veteran when contacted.