Tan misses the boat yet again

By FOONG PEK YEE
pekyee@thestar.com.my

Gelang Patah MP Tan Ah Eng was overlooked a third time when the latest Cabinet reshuffle was announced.

SHE literally missed the boat three times within two years.

Second-term Gelang Patah MP Tan Ah Eng who failed to get a deputy minister’s post in three consecutive Cabinet changes since March 2008 certainly finds this frustrating.

The first was immediately after the March 8, 2008 general election, followed by two mini Cabinet reshuffles – in April last year and last Tuesday.

Thus, her unhappiness over the last few days is understandable.

The 55-year-old Wanita MCA deputy chief had on Monday claimed that party president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek did not submit her name for the Prime Minister to consider her for a deputy minister’s post in the latest reshuffle.

She even said she had verified the matter with Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Tan, who has an advanced diploma in insurance, said Najib also told her that he did not doubt her ability.

The debate as to who gets appointed can go on but the fact remains that such appointments are the prerogative of the Prime Minister.

And Najib had stated that in no uncertain terms when he said that first-term Labis MP Chua Tee Yong’s appointment as Deputy Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister was based on his credentials and not because he is the party president’s son.

Cabinet candidates: (From left) Tan, Heng, Chew and Chua

“It is not an issue as I went through the list,” said Najib, adding that he had confidence in the ability of the 30-year-old chartered accountant to perform as a deputy minster.

Tee Yong, who also has a Masters in Business Administration, was a chief financial officer with a government-linked-company before the last general election.

Tan and Tee Yong are among the seven MPs from Johor who emerged winners after the March 8 political tsunami. Four of them were appointed deputy ministers in the new Cabinet line-up.

Apart from Tan and Tee Yong, the other person who did not get any post at that time is then MCA president and Kulai MP Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting.

Ka Ting had then announced his retirement from politics to take responsibility for the party’s dismal performance in the general election.

The MCA, which won 31 parliamentary seats in the 2004 general election, was left with 15 the last round.

Mathematically, Tan, a second-term MP and staunch supporter of Ka Ting, did stand a chance to be made a deputy minister but it was not meant to be.

Instead, she was bypassed by two first-term MPs when Kluang MP Dr Hou Kok Chung was apppointed Deputy Higher Education Minister and Tanjong Piai MP Datuk Wee Jeck Seng was made Deputy Youth and Sports Minister.

Both were in their early 40s then.

If that was not enough, Tebrau MP Teng Boon Soon, who was 67 then, was appointed Deputy Information, Communication and Culture Minister – an appointment that had taken many by surprise due to his age.

The youngest among the four MCA deputy ministers from Johor then was Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong, 40, also the MCA Youth secretary-general and Ayer Hitam MP.

Four of the six deputy minister posts for MCA went to Johor and yet Tan was not among them.

The other two deputy ministers then were Lumut MP Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha (Finance) and Alor Setar MP Datuk Chor Chee Heung (Home).

Did Tan, a staunch supporter of Ka Ting, question the latter’s recommended list of candidates fowarded to then Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi?

Did she cry for justice when Dr Hou, a Universiti Malaya lecturer and ordinary party member then, was handpicked by Ka Ting to contest in the general election and immediately recommended to be made a deputy minister after winning the seat?

And did Tan consider Jeck Seng’s apppointment as nepotism since the latter was Ka Ting’s protege and former political secretary?

Last but not least, how did Tan, 53 then, view Teng’s apppointment as the latter (at 67) was way past retirement age?

Or did Tan agree that Teng’s appointment was to “keep the seat” for then Wanita MCA chief-designate Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun who lost the PJ Utara seat?

(The talk then was it was easier to drop Teng and give the deputy minister’s post to Chew once she got appointed as a senator).

A year later, in April 2009, came a mini Cabinet reshuffle and true enough, Chew was made a senator and Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister.

MCA got seven deputy minister posts, an additional one to the six previously.

Teng was also dropped as deputy minister but his post went to Wanita secretary-general Heng Seai Kie who was a senator and Tan’s junior in the wing. Tan is naturally devastated.

And many also wonder whether Tan, who was a staunch supporter of then party president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, questioned the latter’s list of recommended candidates to Najib.

This April, Chew who resigned from all her posts including the Wanita chief and Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister, had given Tan fresh hope.

Tan was promoted to be the wing’s number two after the deputy chief Datuk Yu Chok Tow took over the helm.

Yu, who lost in the last general election, was not made a senator and thus could not take over Chew’s deputy minister’s post.

This had raised Tan’s hope of taking up the deputy minister’s post vacated by Chew but again it was not meant to be.