KUALA LUMPUR – The MCA crisis came to a head with Chua Soi Lek's shock announcement yesterday that he was resigning as party deputy president.

The upheaval is even more pronounced now as leaders and members are thrown into disarray and various leaders are trying to regroup and restrategise their next course of action.

Meanwhile, the public – at least the segment of society that are still interested in the mainstream farce – refused to be left out in the cold. The reaction have been vocal with some for and others against what have happened thus far.

Speaking up

Malaysian Mirror readers have been streaming in with their opinions the moment we posted the first breaking news of the Chua bombshell yesterday.

A few comments were deemed unfit for publication because of the vitriolic content.

But the majority have helped shed light on popular thinking about the drawn-out saga that has been rocking the MCA boat to the point many in and outside the party are suffering from significant vertigo and fatigue.

When will all these self-serving b*^&@%t end? More to the point, when is MCA or the other parties for that matter going to get their act together and actually work towards the betterment of Malaysians?   

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.

Chua's move is the latest twist in the MCA leadership tussle which struck the party August last year when he was sacked for tarnishing its image because of the sex video.

The immediacy of the web have led  to many people willing to dispense their thoughts or use the medium as a platform to vilify the leaders or the party they despise.

Cynics have come into the picture with one saying there's hardly any honest and down-to-earth politicians in the country.

Pros and cons

One person saw Chua's resignation as an outright challenge to Ong Tee Keat's presidency, bemoaning "the end of integrity."

A Chua critic called him "a dirty old man, scheming, devious and opportunistic! You are the star again, indeed, you are very much into acting in blockbusters."

In Chua's defence, one Daniel Koh considered him a forthright man despite a blemish or two. "Dr Chua is a man of his word. He kept his promise."

A cynic saw the infighting "purely due to uneven distribution of loot and nothing to do with principle or integrity."

Bigger picture?

One person saw the MCA debacle in the context of the overall political system.

The person, identified only as "Malaysia Horizon", wrote at length about how Najib Abdul Razak's idea for direct membership of individuals seemed to be a fall-back plan in case Chua and MCA vice-president Liow Tiong Lai were to lose in the MCA election.

"They can still quit MCA and join Barisan Nasional from the back-door, assuming all BN component parties agree to the proposed direct membership."

BN's political recovery plan is slowly falling into place with the destabilisation of MCA and Pakatan Rakyat, the comment continues.

"Manoeuvres are expected to get MCA stalwarts aligned to Umno to helm MCA. It won’t be surprising if Chua and Liow mend fences and work together to oust Ong. After all, there are no permanent enemies in the Malaysian brand of politics!

Facing DAP

"Both are less combative and more compliant, which fits the bill perfectly for Najib’s Umno. If sufficient carrots are hung out for the community that MCA represents,  Chua and Liow are envisaged to work doubly hard to get the votes for BN.

"But  they would need to clear the first hurdle and win the MCA election. And they have to later contend (if they win the MCA elections) with a formidable DAP supported by its allies." — Malaysian Mirror