CPI note: Now that the new MCA President has been elected, what can the Chinese community look forward to? Below is one expectation which deserves deep reflection.

The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labour. – Albert Camus, ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’, Ch 4.

 

William Cheng, president of the Associated Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCCIM), revealed what is to be expected of the MCA when he said this of the party’s presidential and central committee elections:

 

“.. the central delegates should use their wisdom to elect a president to solve the party crisis at one go. … There are four ministers and seven deputy ministers in MCA. They can resolve problems faster than us as they have access to the Government. … We (the Chinese community) have lost many opportunities the past one year.???

 

MCA is the way it is because of its own existence, the intrinsic nature in its political purpose that Cheng puts it rather plainly. When it has come down to the role of getting pickings – in Cheng’s words, “access to the government??? – this is how the party ends up 60 years later, today.

What’s wrong with the MCA?

It does a Sisyphean role. Chua Soi Lek, ex-this and ex-that in the government and the party, reveals the role clearly – not that he understands it – when he had the thing, below, as part of his “manifesto???. He didn’t know it, of course. But, worse than that, he thinks we’re just ants.

 The actual Sisyphus

All that is also to suggest that Chua should retire with his DVD mistress to a Scottish mountain top and leave politics to the Confucianists.

Albert Camus, the French who wrote the opening lines at the top of page, would have the other answer for the MCA, its presidents, and about the futility and absurdity of their functions and responsibilities. No, don’t kill yourself. Revolt.

Mr Cheng: That’s the criterion, the only criterion, necessary and sufficient to select the president.

This article appeared in the blog http://shuzheng.wordpress.com before the MCA presidential election.