SOON after the general elections of November 1999, I happened to be with Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon who had helped thwart an all-out DAP attack, led by opposition supremo Lim Kit Siang himself, on Gerakan-held state seats in Penang.

The chief minister and state Gerakan chief appeared pensive. He spoke about Lim’s challenge and signs of a future DAP strategy for Penang. I prodded him to tell what he thought the DAP was planning. Koh paused a moment, and then prophetically uttered: “To bring Lim Guan Eng to Penang.”

The Penang chief minister’s post has long been eyed by some parties as a crown jewel of their battles in the colourful political fields of peninsular Malaysia.

And with Guan Eng, the DAP secretary-general and son of Kit Siang, today seated on the very throne today, a pungent political scent has already been whiffing about with premonitions that the continuing battle is far from over.

Over the last few weeks, MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, who is also transport minister, has made himself increasingly visible in Penang, with proclamations of new federal allocations for the state. On June 1, for instance, he proudly announced that the federal government had extended its liberalisation policy for airline services to Penang.

What made the occasion politically charged was his emphasis that the idea came about following feedback by MCA Penang. “Although MCA does not have any parliamentary and assembly seats, the party feels it should forward its proposal and agenda,” he said.

More ominously, Ong later revealed that his ministry had plans to expand Penang Port by deepening its channel at an estimated cost of RM1 billion. The project, he stressed, was critical to “determine the lifeline of Penang Port” which was operating only as a feeder port despite its “glorious past”.

The significance of what Ong said was lost to some. But he may well have alluded to Penang’s free port status, which was controversially removed by the federal government in 1969 – during the tenure of MCA’s Tan Sri Wong Pow Nee as the first chief minister of Penang.

In fact, the issue of losing the free port was played to the hilt by Gerakan, under Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu, which then swept the general elections that year to take control of the state. What made the loss particularly bitter for MCA was that Chong Eu had served as the party’s president from 1958 to 1960 before he left and co-founded Gerakan to wrest the chief minister’s post from MCA.

Dramatically enough, Koh, who succeeded Chong Eu, had received a taste of just how much his chief minister’s tenure was under threat by MCA after the 1999 general elections. Two senior Gerakan members, Lim Boo Chang (now a PKR member) and Lim Chien Aun, who had retained their state seats, stunned the local political scene when they suddenly crossed over to MCA.

What made the scenario intriguing was that they were both sons of respected Gerakan founding members. Boo Chang’s father was Datuk Lim Ee Heong and Chien Aun’s was none other than Chong Eu.

The defections led to Gerakan having fewer seats than MCA in the state assembly. There was a heated wrangling between the two parties for days after that as MCA worked earnestly to persuade prime minister and BN chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to give the chief minister’s post to its state chairman Tan Sri Dr Sak Cheng Lum. In the end, however, the BN leadership stuck with Koh.

What makes the situation interesting now is that neither Gerakan nor MCA hold any seats in the state assembly today. But with MCA intensifying its posturing in Penang, the situation is bound to heat up as the next general election draws near.

If, just if, the BN gains a majority in the election, one can already foresee MCA making a dogged bid to take the chief minister’s post.

Gerakan, meanwhile, has been working hard to keep itself relevant through a stream of press statements. And with Koh recently appointed as a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, he seems to have ended his silence since losing in the general election last year, with more public appearances in order and perhaps some juicy announcements to boot.

Mind you, there is another niggling variable in this dramatic equation – Umno. In September 2008, the party’s then Bukit Bendera division chief, Datuk Ahmad Ismail, taunted Gerakan during his infamous press conference that later saw Koh’s photo torn by Umno supporters. Ahmad controversially declared that MCA should be the one to hold the chief minister’s post among BN parties.

But in 1996, Penang Umno Youth had first made its claim for a rotation of the chief minister’s post between the party and Gerakan. The demand has been floated around on and off since then.

To be fair, the sentiments on the ground that swept BN out of power last year do not seem to have changed much. Despite this, Penangites may well brace themselves in the run-up to the next elections for what may be yet another dramatic climax in the thrilling race for the crown jewel of our local politics.

Himanshu is theSun’s Penang bureau chief. Comment: letters@thesundaily.com.