By Teo Cheng Wee
Foreign Correspondent
chengwee@sph.com.sg

 

IN KUALA LUMPUR

IT DOES not seem the most likely time or place, but amidst the current mud-slinging in Malaysia's Chinese political circles is a pinch of cheeky, clean fun.

The Chinese papers here are having a field day reporting on the ongoing leadership tussle between the Malaysian Chinese Association's (MCA) president Ong Tee Keat and recently-fired deputy president Chua Soi Lek.

They have given generous coverage of the duo's feud, which came to a boil when the latter was sacked from the party last week over an old sex scandal.

Datuk Seri Chua's supporters have moved to hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to reinstate him and to push for a motion of no-confidence against Datuk Seri Ong, saying Mr Chua was unfairly persecuted. They say his scandal was exposed almost two years ago, and he had already resigned from all his government and party posts.

The fiery face-off between MCA's top two leaders has provided much fodder for the Chinese press, which dedicate pages of coverage to the contest daily. It is often serious, but sometimes irreverent - and that is where the cheeky fun comes in.

In fact, as the saga has developed, cooking metaphors seem to be the order of the day. This is, after all, a party which has become synonymous with the "cai dan" (Mandarin for "menu").

The "cai dan" is a list of preferred candidates for different posts, endorsed by an MCA leader or its influential members, during the party's internal elections.

The Chinese media had quickly termed Mr Chua's sacking as "chao cai", or "frying vegetables", combining his surname with the common slang "chao you yu", which means "frying cuttlefish" or sacking somebody.

A few days later, rumours surfaced that Mr Ong might step down together Mr Chua, ending the strife by allowing two new leaders to take their place.

Among the successors being bandied around were MCA vice-presidents Kong Cho Ha and Liow Tiong Lai, as well as MCA Youth Chief Wee Ka Siong.

More puns ensued. This time, the press said that "weng cai" (or the kangkong vegetable, which sounds like a combination of the two incumbents' surnames) would be giving way to either "jiang liao" (cooking sauce, a combination of Mr Kong and Mr Liow's surnames) or "liao wei" (flavouring, a combination of Mr Liow and Dr Wee's surname)

One cartoon in Sin Chew Daily on Monday even had two supermarket saleswomen trying to entice a curious customer to test one of these new products.

"New addition, new taste, want to try?" one of them asks with a big grin.

Indeed, cartoon caricatures of Mr Ong and Mr Chua have been appearing almost daily, in different forms of competition: arm-wrestling one day; playing chess the next.

Nanyang Siang Pau also pictured the pair playing poker on the paper's Sunday cover, when it emerged that Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan, brother of MCA's last president Ong Ka Ting, had tacitly pledged his sizeable support base in Perak to Mr Chua.

In Nanyang's picture, Mr Chua is holding a King of Hearts card with Mr Ong Ka Chuan's face on it. The paper called it a "huang pai" (or trump card), a play on the latter's surname, which sounds like "King" in Mandarin.

But Mr Ong Tee Keat, the Chinese media says, will not go down easy.

He has been dubbed "bu dao weng" - one of those roly poly plastic toys that keep bouncing up no matter how much you punch it. Once again, it's a play on his surname. "Bu dao weng" literally means "Ong who doesn't fall" - a name which seems to resonate even more now that he has stolen a march on Mr Chua by calling for an EGM of his own.

As the two men continue brewing up a storm, the Chinese media will no doubt cook up more puns. We can expect future developments to be just as spicy.