I refer to the Malaysiakini report MCA leadership rooted in crisis .

Our party MCA has certainly been dealt a severe lesson by the people. This is not the time to be acrimonious rather we should take stock and find the root cause which more or less decimated our party in the just concluded general elections.

To re-engineer the party is an absolute must. Solutions must be found to revitalise our party. Only after which we can have the luxury of time to deal with leaders who have not been effective in their leadership which caused this debacle the party now faces.

If necessary we will replace them. No one person owns the party. It belongs to every one of us members. I always believed that we should look back into history for guidance when we are in a critical situation.

We should look back to the 1982 general elections when - for the first time - our candidates were able to win in major Chinese majority constituencies such as PJ, KL, Ipoh, Penang and our then president stood in Seremban against the then chairperson of the DAP and defeated him.

This came on the heels of the 1981 by-election of the Pengkalan Kota state constituency of Penang where the electorate comprised more than 90% of Chinese and for the first time MCA won in that Chinese constituency since independence.

The win was attributed to our call for the Chinese to unite under MCA, the only Chinese political party in the country. This had created a huge political goodwill reserve for the MCA.

Unfortunately, since 1982, subsequent leaders have not built on this reserve but instead lived off it, like someone who has inherited huge wealth and just spends whatever that is given to him without replenishment.

Hence after 26 years, the goodwill and reserve we created is now depleted. We are now bankrupt. Therefore it is not surprising that we end up with this terrible defeat. We can only hold the leaders who lead our party over this period of time accountable.

The question now is whether it is too late to learn the lesson. The present leadership should ensure that changes are made. MCA is on the brink. Things must be done before it is annihilated.

The writer is MCA PJ Utara Division chairperson.