As a member of MCA and supporter of the Barisan Nasional government, I have some disagreements with the opinions published by malaysiakini , but I still think that its news coverage is truthful, objective and credible. For this reason, I log on to the website twice a day to know what is happening in Malaysia and the world.

I think my party president Dr Ling Liong Sik should engage the more credible malaysiakini , rather than The Star which is owned by our party. Although The Star is entertaining, we must accept the reality that after the Nanyang Press takeover controversy, its political credibility has been greatly tarnished. No one would believe what an MCA president who is also a Huaren trustee say in The Star simply because of the boss-employee relationship in the equation. It is akin to the Umno president speaking to Utusan Malaysia , Berita Harian , New Straits Times and TV3 .

It is better for Ling to engage malaysiakini constructively as deputy president Lim Ah Lek and vice-president Chua Jui Meng have been doing. Ling would gain more credibility if his views and opinions are published here, rather than in other state-owned/controlled media.

Nowadays, even young and educated Chinese and MCA members like me can no longer accept unpolished party propaganda. For MCA leaders to be socially and politically credible, they have to accept the new reality that there is a malaysiakini , read every day by some 100,000 Malaysians like me and others overseas.

The reason is simple; if we cannot beat it, we join it. "It" here means malaysiakini . MCA's image would be better protected and enhanced in this way. There are no two ways about it.