‘Appease Chinese to keep MCA in government, Soi Lek tells BN' read an article yesterday in Malaysia Today . MCA president Chua Soi Lek explains that this is not a threat to the Chinese community, but a warning to party members that they will lose all government posts if they fare worse than they did in the 2008 GE.

This desperate reminder to BN and to Malaysian Chinese once again revealed just how out of touch the MCA leadership is to the sentiments of the Chinese electorate.

Chua is again crying the same sad tune - that MCA has been fighting hard for the Chinese all this while; it is the big brother Umno that has not been magnanimous in treating the community fairly. Yet this is a defeatist tone, relegating MCA's accountability and responsibility to the shoulders of Umno leaders.

The Chinese community did not buy this scenario then, and they will not buy it now. Over the years, they have seen MCA putting the interest of their self preservation above that of the community.

When Umno leaders question the Chinese's status, when disparaging remarks are made that belittle the contributions and loyalty of the community, at best MCA will murmur an objection, and at worst, barely a word from so-called community's protector.

MCA leaders, and those climbing up the ranks, are seemingly obsessed with titles; plum board directorships in many of MCA's owned companies and as Chua reminded us today, government posts. To make it big in MCA is prestige and the door to many lucrative opportunities.

Contrast this with DAP - Lim Guan Eng is still a simple ‘Mister’, despite being chief minister of Penang, while a lowly divisional MCA leader is already a Datuk Seri.

MCA is involved in a myriad of businesses that rake in hundreds of millions, with those aligned to the party leadership rewarded with well paid corporate roles in both the private and public sector. There are no such perks and privileges for DAP members.

Even the ‘New Deal’, espoused recently by the Chua, is a class-act in double standards and hypocrisy.

Firstly, MCA is all for more freedom of the press, in its call for the abolition of the Printing Presses and Publications Act. Yet MCA owns Star , which has served as a mouthpiece for the party for decades. Its journalistic integrity is questionable, its political columns hardly balanced in its views, with a strong bias in favour of the governments' stance.

Hence, its sudden awakening to the importance of press freedom in a democracy deserves ridicule if MCA still hangs on to ownership of Star . Will MCA  truly make a stand for unbiased media, and dispose off the Star to independent parties who can provide a more balanced point of view?

MCA's ‘New Deal’ also talked about no more cronyism and nepotism. Yet, in the cabinet, we have one of the youngest deputy ministers ever, who happens to be Chua’s son, seemingly thrust into a ministerial role presumably to ‘compensate’ Chua for declining a cabinet position. Are there no other more senior MCA leaders with experience who deserve the position that Chua’s son was given?

Lastly, MCA is a political party with a huge business exposure. Surely there will be potential conflicts of interest, cronyism, and favouritism by virtue of its government connections? Can MCA decide what is to be its full time job - politics or business?

MCA has been roundly rejected by the Chinese in the last election, and it will do not much better in the next. The right gauge of support isn't whether it will win more seats in the next GE compared to the last one - having suffered such a miserable rout and with the recent BN/government's goodies and freebies, it will be downright humiliating if it does not improve its performance by a couple of seats.

The right gauge of Chinese support instead should be seen whether DAP or MCA will secure more seats - if it is the former, then MCA should relinquish all government positions and retreat into their corporate cocoons.

Or better, have a straight one-to-one fight between Chua Soi Lek vs Lim Guan Eng, or Ng Yen Yen vs Theresa Kok, or Wee Ka Siong vs Tony Pua. Then we will see who the Chinese really perceive as their true leaders and protectors.

 

CL Tang resides in Muar, Johor.