MCA Youth chief Chong Sin Woon lamented that the BN mechanism to resolve ethnic issues is now dysfunctional, and the ruling coalition is degenerating into a “racial conflict factory”.

Therefore, he urged BN parties to open their membership to all regardless of race.

"In the latest red-shirt rally, we find that BN as a platform to ease ethnic conflicts is not working, and even deteriorated into a factory which creates ethnic conflicts instead.

"(Some BN leaders) sacrifice national interest and provoke racial sentiments in order to gain votes.

"Is there any hope for the nation's future? I think BN's transformation plan must not be delayed," he told representatives at the MCA Youth annual meet in Kuala Lumpur today.

Chong said all BN parties, including MCA, should not hesitate to open their membership to become a "party for all" instead of working along racial lines.

Of late, MCA has demanded an apology from agriculture and agro-based industries deputy minister Tajuddin Abdul Rahman over his remark on "slapping the Chinese", but to no avail.

This has prompted MCA to submit a formal letter of complaint to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

It said BN should stick to its multiracial lines rather than inclining towards extremism, and conduct a thorough investigation on 1MDB.

"More importantly, if the platform, which is supposed to be of collective responsibility and accepting all member parties' voices, is no longer working, MCA Youth will be the first to step up, urging MCA to consider if the BN model still workable," he promised.

MCA-BN divorce in worst case scenario

Meanwhile, MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong appeared to take an indirect swipe at the prime minister for stating that BN leaders "agreed to disagree" over the red shirt rally.

He warned that this could lead to a crisis and allow extremism to take root.

Wee also warned if BN strayed from the principles of moderation and harmony, MCA might be forced to sever its 60-year tie with the coalition.

"If one day the BN spirit is gone, where moderation loses to extremism, pluralism loses to theocracy, BN will fall apart,” he said in his speech.

However, Wee stressed that the prospect of a divorce was the worst case scenario and MCA is doing its best to mend the issue.

"Our party president will lead us in taking necessary and positive steps to pull BN back on track," he stated.

MCA, he stressed, has to be responsible to the Chinese community and to the nation.

"Therefore, our president has also rightly indicated MCA's stand, especially our dissatisfaction with certain quarters in Umno.

"He also urged Umno to review its internal problems and to base its decision on the overall position of BN and our country.

"We cannot allow certain quarters in Umno to do whatever they want and destroy our stability," he added.

Several Umno leaders, whether directly or indirectly, supported the red shirt rally, which was originally about defending 'Malay pride', despite strong objections from MCA and other BN component parties.