Datuk Chor Chee Heung get the full Housing Ministrial post.
Dr Chua seek no ministrial posts.However, his son Labis MP got deputy agricultural posts amid alleged deal with Najib for the post.Father post given to son.
MCA got almost all that it wanted in the cabinet reshuffle. Although the party did not get the post of international trade and industry minister it was eyeing, its wish to have the deputy agriculture and agro-based industry and deputy home minister portfolios was granted.
MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, who kept his promise not to seek a cabinet post, told Sin Chew Daily today the party had been fighting for a portfolio in the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry for years.
It is the first time that the party is given the deputy agriculture and agro-based industry minister’s post.
He said MCA has been fighting for the three posts and succeed in getting two of them.
“The two ministries are important to the Chinese, especially the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry.
“Many people have the misconception that farmers are non-Chinese, when in fact many Chinese are engaged in farming, including growing fruits, vegetables and staple crops; and the plantation and fishing industries.
“In the past, I have received many complaints from these farmers about bias in the implementation of policies by the ministry, and about
their lack of knowledge in raising their farming skills.”
Chinese had held the post of deputy agriculture minister’s post before but they were from Gerakan.
MCA lost the deputy home minister’s post in the first cabinet reshuffle after the 2008 general election.
Chua thanked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak for allocating the posts of deputy agriculture and agro-based industry
minister and deputy home minister to the party.
Apart from congratulating Datuk Chor Chee Heung for being promoted to a full minister to helm the Housing and Local Government Ministry, Chua also thanked former party president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and central committee member Datuk Wee Jeck Seng who had been dropped as transport minister and deputy youth and sports minister respectively, for their contributions.
He hoped both Ong and Wee would continue to work for the unity and stability of the party.
Nanyang Siang Pau said Najib’s maiden reshuffle since becoming the prime minister more than a year ago showed that he still trusts the
second largest component parties in the Barisan Nasional.
The changes in the MCA line-up in the government, meanwhile, reflect Chua’s wishes.
As expected, Ong has to pay the price for losing the party presidency whereas Wee was axed for falling out with the party chief. This is the reality of politics.
Chor, who was bypassed for promotion in the reshuffle after the 2004 general election when then fresh-faced MP Chua was made a minister, was vindicated by none other than Chua himself.
This perhaps is how karma works but it also shows that in politics, anything can happens.
Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha can count his blessings for having aligned himself with Chua, as despite losing the battle for the party’s No. 2
post, he was not only appointed the party secretary-general post after the party polls he is also moving from the Housing and Local
Government Ministry to the Transport Ministry, which has an executive jet at its disposal.
Meanwhile, none of the Chinese dailies has touched on what is going to happen to the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal now that Ong has been dropped from the cabinet.
Ong, who has pursued the case relentlessly, is on vacation overseas. He is to clock out at his ministry in Putrajaya for the last time
tomorrow.
