Over the past few years, MCA Youth delegates have often made headlines with their fiery attacks against BN coalition partner Umno during the movement's annual assembly.

Since the infamous keris incident in 2007, delegates had been condemning Umno for causing BN to lose Chinese support, more so after MCA's dismal showing during the 2008 general election.

mca youth agm 011011 04 This year, the tune was largely different. Instead of pointing their guns inwards, delegates mostly trained their sights on arch rivals DAP and to a lesser extent PAS.

Beginning with MCA deputy president Liow Tiong Lai and youth chief Wee Ka Siong's opening speech, delegates lambasted DAP repeatedly for selling out the Chinese community, especially in its response to PAS’ reiteration that it wants to impose hudud law.

Liow challenged DAP to break ties with PAS while Wee called DAP a coward.

As for the delegates, this was a once a year opportunity for them to collectively poke fun at DAP and point out their flaws.

A number of delegates were crude in their attacks, with at least three delegates mentioning the word "dog" when mentioning DAP's name in Chinese.

Crude jokes galore

Perak delegate Khor Chin Ghee went as far as mocking DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang by wearing a pair of sunglasses.

mca youth agm 011011 audience 01 Khor said that Lim was wearing sunglasses even indoors at one stage because he had turned his back on the Chinese and "cannot face his ancestors, thus cannot take down the sunglasses".

Lim had to wear sunglasses in public, even at night, after he suffered an infection after a cataract operation in April.

Surprisingly, few delegates spoke on the proposal for MCA to refuse federal cabinet positions should it fare badly in the next general election.

This was a major theme proposed by MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek's team, which DAP said was an attempt to threaten the Chinese voters.

Delegates who did raise the issue did not discuss it as thoroughly as Chua who had explained his theory in detail numerous times that less Chinese representation in a BN government would hurt the Chinese community.

Eventually, a resolution on this proposal was passed unanimously at the AGM.

Prepping for online war

There were also a sprinkling of the usual Chinese education issues, but a delegate's speech about attempts to impose royalty payments on small traders broadcasting festive songs triggered the strongest reactions from the delegates.

mca youth agm 011011 liow tiong lai wee ka siong Perhaps new to the MCA discourse is the notion that the party has to be more active in cyberspace as polls loom.

Liow ( in white ) in his opening speech called the Internet a major battleground while Wee said the party has trained "a few thousand" people to use social media to implement its online strategy.

MCA Youth strategist Neil Foo, in his closing speech, provided an analysis of online opposition support during the 2008 general election.

He said opposition parties then did not have many people who actively promoted their policies, but they had capitalised on a lot of discontent being voiced online by ordinary people.

"All over the world, the young will go through an anti-establishment phase. This is never permanent," said Foo, citing a pendulum effect.