Section 27: Times of Glory

MCA Jempol District Constituency: Brotherly Struggle, Intense Battle, Zhuang Qixiang's Understanding of Political Cruelty

Times of Glory (Part 1)

Since its establishment 31 years ago, the MCA MCA Jempol Divisionhas had two relatively calm periods. The first was the nine-year period from its establishment in early 1987 to 1996 when Zhuang Qixiang was in power. The second was during Chew Ah Kow’s time when he was elected as the state assemblyman in 1995 and defeated Zhuang Qixiang in the following year's party election . Apart from these periods, the several other party elections were turbulent, with intense struggles.

The most exciting and unexpected battle took place on April 28, 1996. The incumbent chairman, Zhuang Qixiang, was challenged by his deceased comrade Chew Ah Kow, with no signs beforehand, erupting suddenly on the nomination day four days earlier and alarming the headquarters of the State of Negeri Sembilan.

Both Zhuang Qixiang and Chew Ah Kow rose to power after the Liang & Chen factional struggle and were beloved generals of the N.Sembilan State Chairman, Wong Soon Kai. When the brothers' struggle incident broke out, Wong Soon Kai personally led Han Chunjin, Wu Shaofa, and Lai Rihui to mediate in Bahau, urging Chew to give up contesting for the chairman and become the acting chairman. But the effort failed. In the context of power, a battle erupted that hurt friends and made enemies happy.

When Chew Ah Kow took up arms for the battle, some say he forgot his loyalty and turned against his master, but others have a different interpretation. The origin of this battle was actually a struggle over the position of the Jempol District Youth Leader, involving a battle between the Huang and Yao factions. This battle could have been avoided, but once it was entangled with the struggle between the Huang and Yao factions, it was difficult to resolve. Yao's Chen Yingshi was instructed to challenge Chew Ah Kow, the incumbent youth leader, which provoked dissatisfaction from the Huang faction. They advised Chen to withdraw from the election, but failed to do so. At that time, Chew Ah Kow, who had been elected as the Bahau State Assemblyman, had his youth leader position challenged. Therefore, the faction supporting him decided to abandon the youth leader position and fought for the district chairman.

After Xu’s faction decided, they used “righteousness” and certain coercion to reason Chew into electing as the district chairman. Otherwise, he would become a lame duck state assemblyman who had to obeyed the district chairman.

Chew Ah Kow, who was once a principal at a Chinese primary school, transformed into a state legislator amidst fervent public sentiment. When the nomination deadline was about to end, he reluctantly submitted his nomination form, while his team leader Gan Chuanjie challenged Chen Yingshi. In this battle, Gan received 41 votes while Chen received 35, securing victory for their faction. Chew Ah Kow also defeated Zhuang Qixiang by a vote of 87 to 59, achieving a resounding victory in this campaign.

Times of Glory (Part 2) Dramatic Return of Lim Hui Ming to MCA After Joining DAP and Winning State Assembly Seat

Since 1987, there have been four chairmen elected to the MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) Jempol district Branch, namely Chuang Qixiang, Xu Yagou, Lim Hui Ming, and Ye Qingliang.

Out of the four, Chuang Qixiang was ousted by Xu Yagou; and Lim Hui Ming, who returned to MCA, defeated Ye Qingliang to take the chairman position. However, after five years of recuperation, Ye Qingliang returned and defeated Lim Hui Ming in a three-way contest, avenging his past defeat.

The most dramatic part is that Lin Hui Ming, who had previously crossed over from MCA to DAP, was elected as the Bahau state assemblyman in the 2004 general election, wiping away the shame of losing to Chew Ah Kow in the 1995 general election. Unexpectedly, three years after he was elected as a state assemblyman, he quit DAP in 2007 and news of his return to MCA broke on March 15 of the same year, causing a big stir in the Bahau area.

Pan Pao Tien acted as a mediator At that time. When Huang Chai Ting, who was then the MCA president and Negeri Sembilan chairman, announced his return to MCA in Seremban, the Bahau MCA protested. However, under the blessing of the MCA president, Lin was able to smoothly enter the MCA.

At that time, Pan Pao Tien, the organizing secretary of the Bahau MCA, revealed that the party members had held a special meeting to discuss countermeasures against Lin Hui Ming's entry into the Bahau MCA, but he received instructions from the state leadership to take responsibility for lobbying party members and letting Lin Hui Ming enter the Bahau MCA.

Later, Zhuang Qixiang said that he finally understood the ruthlessness of politics, but what saddened him the most was that the one who challenged him was a comrade-in-arms who had fought alongside him.

After taking control of the Jempol constituency, Chew Ah Kow revitalized MCA's momentum and achieved his peak in politics during the 1999 general election, where he defeated the Democratic Action Party (DAP) by a large margin in the Bahau constituency. He was praised by the then N. Sembilan State Chairman Han Chin Khon as an "8A" state assemblyman.

However, politics is a treacherous path full of traps. Whether intentional or unintentional, even a slight misstep can lead to being caught in complex controversies and suffering.

At the peak of his career, Chew Ah Kow was unexpectedly defeated in the 2004 general election, where the Barisan Nasional was expected to perform well. What was even more surprising was that his arch-enemy, Lim Hui Ming, whom he had defeated in 1995, was the one who defeated him. Even more surprisingly, after winning, Lim Hui Ming returned to MCA and later became the chairman of the MCA Jempol constituency.

Three-corner fight erupted in the 2008 re-election, Lim Hui Ming became the chairman and opened a new page.

On July 27, 2008, the Bahau MCA branch held an election. Finally, the first battle between Lim Hui Ming and the branch chairman Ye Qingliang broke out, which triggered the desire of the Seremban branch chairman Zhang Yuqi to run for chairmanship, turning the battle into a three-corner fight, setting a new record for the Bahau MCA.

On the night of the vote, there were 200 branch representatives. Many party members thought that Ye Qingliang would win because at least his loyalty to the party has never wavered, and he has established a lot of influence in the branch since Chew Ah Kow's death and promotion to the state level.

However, when the results were announced, Lim Hui Ming received 109 votes, Ye Qingliang got 74 votes, and Zhang Yuqi got 16 votes. Lim Hui Ming won by a majority of 35 votes and was elected as the branch chairman, opening a new page in the history of the Bahau MCA.

With 200 branch representatives at the time, Lim Hui Ming had won the support of more than half of them. Even if the votes of Ye Qingliang and Zhang Yuqi were added together, they could not overturn Lim Hui Ming. This showed that the party members had fully accepted Lim Hui Ming's return to MCA from the DAP.

Another revelation of Lim Hui Ming's victory was that on March 8, 2008, he had narrowly lost by only 642 votes in an anti-BN wind. This showed that Lim Hui Ming still had political charm, and everyone believed that under his continued leadership, MCA still had a chance to regain the Bahau state seat, which was one of the reasons for Lim Hui Ming's victory.

Pan Baotian, the organizational secretary of the Bahau branch at the time, said that after Lim Hui Ming took office, he mainly relied on "remote control" for leadership because he was in Seremban, and many things could not be done personally, leading to the dissolution of unity. This was the reason why Ye Qingliang, who made a comeback five years later, defeated Lim Hui Ming.

He said that in the party election on September 22, 2013, Lim lost to Ye Qingliang. Many party members believed that Lim should not have lost. While it is true that his remote control style of leading the district council was a factor in his defeat, the real reason was just "one sentence," which handed the victory to Ye Qingliang.

During the election, Cheng Yaojin and Xiao Guosheng unexpectedly entered the race and drew away Lim Hui Ming's votes, allowing Ye Qingliang to benefit from the split in the opposition.

"One sentence" from a party member caused Lim Hui Ming to tear up the agreement

Before the nomination in 2013, a negotiating team led by Pan Baotian and the former executive secretary of the district council, Wei Huosheng, went to meet Lim Hui Ming in Seremban to discuss election issues.

At that time, the team proposed an agreement for Lim to allow Xiao Guosheng to serve as the acting chairman in order to keep the district council under Lim's control. When Lim stepped down in the future, he would hand over the reins to Xiao.

Pan Baodui revealed that at the time, Lim Huiming promised them verbally, but after they returned, he leaked the information. Lin Huiming could not withstand a single sentence from a Bahau party member, and tore up the agreement, which led the Xiao faction to decide to participate in the election, resulting in a three-cornered fight.

Pan said that Lim Huiming was defeated by this party member's words: "Are you afraid of the Xiao faction, giving them all the political resources? If you want to fight, just come at us. We are not afraid."

Just because of this sentence, Lin gave up the agreement and even encouraged Xiao Guolong to run for chairmanship. Afterwards, it was confirmed that Lim was misled by a confidant around him, who said that Xiao could not get more than 20 votes and that the Lim faction was sure to win without being led by the nose by Xiao’s faction.

The representative meeting was held at the Batu Bakar Community Hall that night, with a total of 182 valid votes. When the speaker announced that Xiao Guolong had received 48 votes, Lin Huiming had 64 votes, and Ye Qingliang had 70 votes, Ye was so excited that he stood up and bowed to the party members present to thank them. .

Several branches in Bahau were partitioned, Jempol only had a home after the establishment of the MCA Jempol Division

Before the establishment of the MCA Jempol Division, several branches in Bahau were "partitioned" by the MCA Tampin and MCA Jelebu Divisions. Only after the establishment of the MCA Jempol Division did they have a home, and then these branches were gradually incorporated. After 31 years of operation, today's MCA Jempol Division has expanded to 31 branches.

Even as members of the MCA Jempol Division, many people, believe it or not, only knew the successor of the division and didn't know its predecessor. Tang Xianqin speculated that the Bahau branch was probably the first to be established when he was elected as the State Assemblyman of Bahau in 1959, and other branches were only established later.

According to Wei Huosheng, the coordinator appointed by the MCA headquarters in Bahau at the time, the MCA organization was not strong enough and there were not many branches and divisions. Many affiliated branches in the divisions were illogical, such as the Pekan Batu Bakar, Kampung Indah, Rompin, and Kepis branches at the time were under the jurisdiction of the MCA Tampin Division.

Bahau, Mashan, Jelai, Air Hitam and Sungai Rui were under the jurisdiction of the Jelebu district association. Therefore, when there were district association elections, the location was not fixed. Sometimes it was held in Bahau, and sometimes in Kuala Klawang. When there were elections in the Tampin's district association, Bahau members had to go to Tampin to vote, and it was the same for national elections. In Bahau, one could not know the results.

With the establishment of the Jempol district in 1980, there were parliamentary seats in Jempol six years later. After the re-districting of four state seats, there was a significant change in the political ecology of Bahau. The former Rompin state seat was replaced by the Palong constituency.

The former Rompin state seat was merged into the Tampin’s parliamentary seatrenamed as the Lebah constituency, and returned to MCA. The other two new state constituencies were Batu Kikir and Jeram Padang.

He said that the redrawing of electoral boundaries caused two major Chinese new villages, Batu Bakar and Kampung Indah, which were previously part of the Tampin state constituency, to be returned to Bahau. This major change caused Bahau to fall into the hands of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) for the first time in the 7th general election of 1986, sparking a political battle between the DAP and the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA).

Chong Chee Siong's Two Unsuccessful Attempts Chong Chee Siong, the first chairman of the Bahau MCA branch, ran for office against DAP's Loh Ming Chai and independent candidate Rao Jinjian in the 7th general election. Loh received 3,821 votes, Chong received 2,522 votes, and Rao received 1,165 votes. Loh made history by planting the DAP's flag in Bahau's political arena.

In the 1990 general election, Chong Chee Siong ran again for Bahau, this time against the strong DAP candidate from Seremban, Wong Zhi yu. Chong received 3,741 votes but lost to Wong, who received 5,092 votes, once again tasting defeat.

Then, the current leader of MCA in Negeri Sembilan, Wong see Wah recommended Chong Ki Xiang to become a two-term senator, and was praised by Ye Qingliang as the happiest and most fortunate district chairman in Bahau. Wong See Wah was regretful about two of his favoured protégés fighting against each other.

As the current chairman of MCA Selangor liaison committee, Wong Siu Wah's special favour towards MCA Bahau was well known, especially towards his two favourite protégés, Chong Ki Siong and Chew Ah Kow. However, there were two incidents that happened to them that made Wong See Wah deeply regretful. Wei Huosheng, who was once the secretary of the state assemblyman for Bahau, pointed out that the first incident was the party election on April 28th, 1996, when Chew Ah Kow challenged Chong Ki Siong for the district chairman position, which surprised him greatly.

"The second incident was on March 8th, 2004, during the general election when Barisan Nasional won overwhelmingly, but Xu Yagou from Bahau lost, which shocked Wong See Wah when he received the news."

Since the defeat in that election, MCA has lost in four consecutive elections, and their defeats have become increasingly embarrassing. Wei believes that as long as party members stand firm and persevere, MCA still has hope of turning things around. The PH government in Selangor came to power with a slim margin of just two seats (20-16), so as long as MCA is willing to reform, rejuvenate and improve their services, there is still hope for them to make a comeback. As the saying goes, "Where there is life, there is hope".