In the light of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's announcement that the cabinet has allowed four new Chinese primary schools to be built and the MCA's silent acceptance of this, the Chinese must ask themselves whether MCA has any relevance left.

With the increasing demand for Chinese schools and the decline in the number of such schools since independence, four new Chinese schools must be viewed in its proper context as "scraps thrown to dogs". Instead of speaking up on the gross inadequacy of such a plan, MCA is admirable in its dogmatic devotion to toe the Umno line even in matters that affect Chinese interests.

We are all aware of the hotly contested places in Chinese schools every year. Parents have resorted to camping outside Chinese schools before registration day to ensure a place for their children, connections are sought and pulled and there are even cases of bribing headmasters to secure a place. With the current interest in Chinese medium education even among English-educated parents, the demand is bound to intensify.

Relocating Chinese schools do not solve the problem of increasing demand. The new schools are sometimes only marginally enlarged and built without school halls. Existing pupils have to travel a longer distance to the new sites. One also hopes that the case of the new SRJK (C) Damasara school is an exception and the authorities are not wont to relocate Chinese schools near rubbish dumps, high tension wires and over ravines with no playing fields.

What is really needed are new Chinese schools built in new housing schemes which have a preponderance of Chinese dwellers, not the empty meaningless gesture of building a new school and closing down a perfectly good one.

MCA's deafening silence in speaking up for more new Chinese schools and its puzzling stance to support the closure of SRJK (C) Damasara is yet another demonstration of the pathetic state the party is in with respect to representing the Chinese community. Not only is MCA wholly deficient in speaking up for Chinese interests, it is also instrumental in assisting the government to ram down unpopular policies that is symptomatic of the racial bigotry of the Barisan Nasional government.

What we have in the MCA is a bunch of self-serving, bickering leaders who are more interested in enriching themselves and safeguarding their positions than in rocking the boat to defend the community they profess to represent.

The Chinese must open their eyes and realise the impotence and unwillingness of MCA to safeguard their interests. There is no policy no matter how unfair and racially biased that MCA will not stomach and support. The loyalty of the Indians to MIC has stunted their progress and assigned them to an underclass. The Chinese should not continue to place blind loyalty in MCA and mortgage their future to a party which has totally lost its way and hopelessly confused on its real aim and purpose.