YOURSAY 'The MCA president would surely be singing a different tune if his ministers were sitting in the cabinet.'

Soi Lek blames non-Muslim ministers for conversion Bill

your say LittleGiant: Just because there are no MCA ministers in the cabinet now, Dr Chua Soi Lek (CSL), the MCA president, should not pretend to act like a 'hero' by ticking off non-Muslim ministers in the cabinet, demanding them to explain why they had allowed the controversial conversion bill to be tabled in Parliament.

Before GE13, did the MCA ministers thoroughly debate all the bills in the cabinet before the bills were tabled? What about the many controversial bills passed by the BN government before?

Can CSL say with gumption that MCA representatives in the cabinet had courageously debated the bills before they were sent to Parliament?

If so, can we now take it that the cabinet decisions pertaining to all controversial bills, especially those that had implications for non-Muslims and passed by the Parliament prior to GE13, had the full support of MCA?

The MCA president would surely be singing a different tune if his ministers were sitting in the cabinet.

Ferdtan: Chua Soi Lek blamed the non-Muslim ministers in the cabinet for allowing the conversion bill to be passed through the cabinet, but was later withdrawn before been tabled in Parliament.

Wow, it's a bit rich coming from Chua, don't you think? Throughout the pre-13th general election period, he was more of speaking out of turn or silent on the Umno-Perkasa extremist agenda to aid Umno's strategy of wooing the rural Malays instead of protecting his party.

No wonder, MCA was wiped out in the general election to become a ‘7-11' party (seven parliamentary seats and eleven state seats). By criticising non-Muslim ministers from the other BN component parties, Chua is indirectly saying that, had MCA were in the cabinet they would have made the difference. Would it?

With the MCA previously in the cabinet for the last five decades, it had and will not make any difference. Is Chua trying to pull a fast one on PM Najib Razak to get them recalled to participate in the government?

Wira: Do not forget that in this country, Islam is under the state sovereign and the individual states have absolute say in the way the religion is practised and run.

We blame MCA for keeping quiet all these years when creeping Islamisation by Umno in state legislatures affected and encroached upon fundamental rights of non-Muslims.

When in government, MCA exco members and Aduns kept quiet when they should have been making noise. So I think MCA works best when they are outside government. Let's keep it that way.

Anonymous #33877536: Chua Soi Lek, it's better that MCA stay out of the cabinet. Now, you can talk freely without fear or favour. This is how MCA and MIC should be.

Swipenter: MCA as the second largest component party of BN. Your job is to ensure fair laws are in place.

Sadly, MCA has not being carrying out this heavy and critical role to its fullest responsibility but instead made to become like a stamping and endorsing department to almost anything proposed by Umno.

Ksn: Chua is saying that if he was in the cabinet with other MCA leaders, he would not have allowed the bill to progress to this stage, right?

Come on, Chua, give the country a break as we all know that MCA has no backbone. While you are quick to condemn the non-Malay cabinet members, have the Malay members no responsibility to be fair to the non-Muslims in the country?

Democracy: Chua, can you explain how these bills got through the state assemblies which MCA was represented in the state exco. What about Johor, when you were in the state exco?

Malaysian Born: The ministers have been so used to toeing the line. In the past when they have voiced their independent opinions, there has been such negative reaction from Umno that the new ethos is to keep silent.

It is incredibly pathetic that the Muslim ministers felt it was okay for such a clause to be included in the bill as it is bordering on the insane that the non-Muslim cabinet members let it through. Fools the lot of them.

Multi Racial: Now, Chua started to talk sense. However there is an ulterior motive as well. He is hitting MCA deputy president Liow Tiong Lai and possibly even former leader Ong Tee Keat then for keeping quiet as both were cabinet ministers. I'm not sure Ong was involved as he might be out of cabinet by then.

Cala: Please act as a gentleman, Dr Chua. Who does not make any mistake? Chua speaks as if he is the most ardent believer in democracy.

He speaks as if the Umno-led BN regime is practising "consociational democracy" and that every issue is debated fairly, equitably, and conscientiously by every component party within the BN coalition in cabinet.

But we know such an idealistic notion is not true. Since the May 13, 1969 incident, "consociational democracy" has been replaced by "coercive consociationalism" (Tarling and Gomez, eds, 2008, p. 85).

In short, the battle is already lost in the aftermath of the fateful incident, neither MCA nor anybody else can control a more lustful "taiko" in doing what pleases it most.

MCA and Chua have failed before, and in this Administration of the Religion of Islam (Federal Territories) Bill 2013 fiasco, they too must have the magnanimity to forgive others on the oversight.

AngryBird: "Chua said such a move had triggered unnecessary controversy and that this would also affect the BN-led federal government's image."

What image is Chua talking about? Umno-BN has no image left at all.

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