Umno, Tsu Koon & an “itchy mouth”

While KPI Minister Koh Tsu Koon was still fresh from being grilled by the public and media with the recently held government transformation program, he now has another concern to worry about.

That is, nothing less than the coveted Penang BN chairmanship, which will determine the chief ministerial role should BN is being voted into power in the next GE.

Penang Umno Liaison Committee chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Umno is seeking the chairmanship of the Penang BN, now held by the Gerakan president, saying it is necessary to strengthen the coalition’s position in the state.

“Other (BN) component parties do not hold any (state) seat in Penang,” he said.

Umno holds 11 seats while MCA, Gerakan and MIC are without any.

In an immediate response, Tsu Koon rejected the call from his colleague, who is also the Defense Minister, by saying that Gerakan has been holding the post for more than 35 years and there is no point to raise the issue now.

“The arrangement of the chairmanship was endorsed again in the middle of this year by the BN supreme council and it should not be raise yet again,” he said.

While I’ve never been a supporter to Tsu Koon, I think Umno has the right to demand for the chairmanship, ignore the fact that they’ve their own agenda to be fulfilled, which is already publicly known anyway.

However, Umno should be smart enough to realize that, with someone from Umno to be appointed as CM, Chinese voters as majority of the Penangites would be more determined to vote against BN in the next GE, with the situation worsen by weak leadership in Gerakan and on-going power tussle in MCA.

Poor Tsu Koon, then again, I honestly think that this poor chap deserves it, one way or another, for he is a backdoor minister being put to be in charge of KPI but not achieving the least KPI as a minister – contested and lost the people mandate in the last GE.

By the way, NTV7 footage showed Tsu Koon in response to Zahid by questioning the demand as “itchy mouth”, which isn’t mentioned on any electronic media so far, we shall see if any Chinese dailies is going to publish the remark tomorrow.