Editor’s note: This is the first part of a series of excerpts from former health minister and MCA president Chua Soi Lek’s book, ‘Like Me or Hate Me: Rising from the Political Ashes’.

BOOK EXCERPT | Besides my work at the Ministry of Health, I also officiated at many NGO and MCA functions. In fact, this period was the busiest in my life. I was on the road almost every day, and almost constantly in the news.

At the time I did not realise the extent to which all this activity was causing uneasiness among senior MCA leaders. It was not long before all my hard work and dedication was construed as being motivated by political ambition.

Within two years of becoming a minister and an elected vice-president, my relationship with the president and his deputy began to deteriorate. Perhaps I was so busy that I neglected the public relations aspect of the job when it came to dealing with senior party figures. As a result, I came to be regarded as arrogant, proud and ambitious.

In early 2004, when I came to Kuala Lumpur to serve as Minister of Health, there was an understanding between the new MCA president (Ong Ka Ting) and myself that I should become the party’s secretary-general.

However, I was not keen on the offer. Although it was an important and powerful position in the party, it was not an elected post. Instead, the secretary-general served at the pleasure of the president. Hence, in the 2005 party election, I opted to stand for one of the party’s four vice-presidential positions instead.

My fatal mistake was not to consult the president and the deputy president beforehand. I felt that my temperament and general tendency to call a spade a spade would not be a good attribute of a secretary-general of the second largest party in Barisan Nasional.

Malaysians are by nature courteous, and often do not like to hear the truth spoken plainly. This certainly appeared to be true of President Ong (below). He was a very courteous man, both in speech and action.

Generally, he tried to avoid direct confrontation on major issues in the hope that the problem would resolve itself over time. I, on the other hand, preferred to take the bull by the horns.

Soon, colleagues began to warn me that there were people who were unhappy that I was working hard and getting a lot of media exposure. This, I think, was the real cause of my downfall in 2008.

Several of my colleagues who viewed me with suspicion seemed to have the ear of the MCA president. Thus, what began as a very cordial relationship between President Ong and myself was put to the test.

Some of these people are still walking in the corridors of power in the party. These are leaders who, despite being rejected more than once by the voters, managed to project themselves as the public face of the MCA.

An unexpected phone call

On Friday, 28 December 2007, I was in Kota Kinabalu to attend a belated national Christmas celebration officiated by the then-deputy prime minister, Najib Razak.

After the function, I was resting in my hotel when I received a call from the chairman of an NGO that was closely associated with me. I used to help the organisation raise funds and attend its annual dinner. My wife also made frequent anonymous donations to this association to help its staff provide free medical treatment for the poor. In short, everybody in town knew I was closely associated with the organisation.

The chairman informed me over the phone that the NGO had received two DVDs in its mailbox. The DVDs contained pornographic material involving me and a woman. He said he would pass one of the DVDs to one of my close friends in Batu Pahat.

I asked my Batu Pahat friend to inquire whether the media and other NGOs had received similar DVDs. Later that night, he called to inform me that the Chinese vernacular press had also received copies. Some were also believed to be available in popular coffee shops and hawker centres. In other words, the distribution had been done in a way designed to achieve maximum effect.

I returned to Kuala Lumpur the next day. After viewing the DVD, I had a discussion with a senior retired Umno politician. He asked me point-blank for my thoughts. I told him I would admit that I was the person in the DVD. In short, I was prepared to take the bull by the horns.

My Umno colleague advised me to lay low, take leave from work and avoid the press. He argued that if anyone suggested that I was the person in the DVD, I could take legal action to restrain them from talking.

I consulted a senior lawyer to find out if I could, in fact, do this. The lawyer replied that proving the identity of a person featured in a DVD involved a tedious legal process. First, the defendant had to prove that the DVD was original. Then, he had to produce the person responsible for producing the DVD as a witness. Often, this was difficult.

However, rather than seeking this form of legal protection, I felt I should be brave and honest enough to admit my mistake. To me, it was a question of having the moral courage to confront the issue...