In recognition of his sterling and long-serving contribution to the nation, the government has bestowed the prestigious 'Tun' title on former MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik.

As a transport minister for 14 years, Ling was seen as one who brought about great change. He kept on changing what he had introduced, like the tinting of cars, mandatory beepers on express buses, rules pertaining to overloaded and dangerous lorries, etc.

According to The Star , Ling is perhaps best remembered for his contribution to the transportation system. Indeed no one has contributed to the increasingly horrendous traffic jams in our cities, the pathetic state of the country's public transport than Ling.

The Star

also describes Ling as a 'firm believer of moderation and compromise'. He had no doubt compromised on the corrupt practices that had been going on in the Road Transport Department (RTD) since he took office.

The result of his compromise was best seen in the Anti-Corruption Agency's revelation in August 2000 of a syndicate operating a driving licence scam that had been active for about five years. It involved RTD officers, the issuing of about 100,000 driving licences and the payment of RM40 million.

In 1997, there were widespread allegations of corruption against officials in Puspakom (the country's privatised vehicle inspection centre). Instead of calling in the ACA, Ling asked the RTD (where corruption was believed to be rife) to conduct investigations into these allegations. Such was his 'moderation'.

During his tenure as transport minister, Ling displayed such an amazing calmness in the face of adversity. This was especially seen in how he handled the problems which plagued the RM10 billion Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). (There continue to be lingering problems).

When rats were found in KLIA, he told parliament every airport in the world has rats; when British Airways decided to pull out of KLIA, his response was that it was 'no loss'; and when the airport's most sophisticated, fastest and most expensive baggage handling system in the world failed, he called the recurring problem 'a teething problem' and added that 'only God can guarantee' problem-free operations at KLIA.

The Star says Ling is also best remembered for the development of ports. For years he had claimed that Malaysia would surpass Singapore as a transhipment hub but all he developed were stale and silly excuses and a habit of using Singapore as a convenient scapegoat and whipping boy for Malaysia's weaknesses.

Little has been said of how several ports have turned into white elephants, such as the RM350 million new Miri Port in Kuala Baram and the RM25 million Segamat Inland dry port which has left the Port Klang Authority (PKA) high and dry.

Ling had launched the inland port in 1997. Located close to his then Labis parliamentary constituency, it profited only the owner of the land from whom the PKA had purchased it and the adjoining TAR College campus - as new access roads were laid to reach the MCA-owned college.

Ling has also contributed much to education. Like everything else under him, he turned education into a business. His efforts in education had very little to do with national qualitative education reforms, greater political and academic freedom or enhancing necessary paradigm shifts. It was very much about making money and political image-making.

Ling showed great consistency as a member of parliament in being absent from the House, thereby receiving top billing for being the most absent MP. For the whole of 1996, for instance, Ling never attended Parliament during question time to answer questions pertaining to ministries. Truant students will no doubt find a model in Tun Truant.

The former president of the MCA showed that he was a man steeped in Chinese culture. Every political move was an elaborated form of a Chinese opera -especially his announced resignations . They were difficult to keep count of.

A man deeply rooted in history, Ling opened the gates of the MCA and welcomed back that part of the past when Chinese secret societies or triads played an influential role in commerce and tin mining in 19th-century Malaya. It is said that if not for the appalling information by MCA Youth chief Ong Tee Keat of a MCA-triad connection, Ling would have kept this achievement quiet.

Ling transformed the political culture of the MCA. Serious and intelligent debates over vital and pressing issues were replaced by free or fund-raising dinners, fashion shows, cultural dances, etc. Everything was okayed at karaoke sessions. 'No-contests' at party elections were interpreted as signs of democracy and political maturity.

Ling made the MCA financially secure. Under his stewardship public donations were solicited nationwide whether it was for the TAR College, Utar, the Langkawi Project or the Nipah fund , and the accounts made known only when the public became very insecure over the outcome of the funds. The long outstanding controversy over the funds of the Chang Ming Thien Foundation (for the higher education) is an added example.

As a leader, Ling Liong Sik showed such a deep sense of self-awareness that when the MCA leadership was intensely squabbling and its members mauling each other, Ling had very humbly declared: 'The fish begins to rot at the head'.

So motivating was he that he moved - through his lieutenants - the members of the MCA Youth to great remorse for having sat on their internal problems for too long that they eventually got up and started hurling chairs at their opponents during their general assembly.

Ling believed in the free market and free press. When he could not get the Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press (two relatively independent papers) to make him 'the star' in their news reports, he bought over them through the MCA's business arm, Huaren in spite of very strong opposition from Chinese groups and associations.

Ling was also a firm believer of shared leadership. When his party was in a deep crisis, he very humbly welcomed the president and vice-president of Umno to be at the helm of the MCA and to decide when he should resign as the president of his party.

Apart from being a leader and a minister, Ling has been a very good father and played a significant role in his children's future. Such was the touching sentiment expressed by his son Ling Hee Leong: 'Ninety-nine per cent of the time, I won't do anything without my father's blessing'.

Ling's blessings must have been really something for at the age of 27 and without any track record, Hee Leong had embarked on corporate acquisitions exceeding RM1.2 billion in a matter of several months. It was indeed baffling not only to Lim Kit Siang who recorded it in a police report but also to his dad who remains mum on it till this day.

Ling's image was made less appealing by allegations of a businessman, who in an exclusive interview with malaysiakini had accused Ling of having abused his position as transport minister to conduct business deals between 1996 and 1997, and for lying by repeatedly denying previous business links between the duo.

The ACA, after much stalling, had initially informed Lim Kit Siang that the case concerning Ling and his son had been closed. But they must have found the malaysiakini interview 'Soh' revealing that they decided to re-open the file. Perhaps making him a Tun indicates that the government will be permanently sealing up what has been so telling.

Alas, in Bolehland almost everything works on the reverse. There can be no better example of this than the government's crowning of Ling Liong Sik with a Tun-ship in spite of his 'colourful' political career and legacy.

Little wonder that the title 'Tun' has become quite synonymous with the word cartoon.