MCA to blame for Umno's growing dominance

INTERVIEW Gan Ping Sieu, who aspires to be the next MCA president so that he can reunite the members and battle external foes, insists that MCA is to be blamed for Umno's growing dominance within BN and the government.

The Chinese-based political party, said Gan, currently a vice-president of MCA, lacks sound political articulation and churns out unclear stands on public issues.

"This is a cause-and-effect relationship. We (the MCA leaders) don't defend our core values.

"We have become technical officers who only want to get things done, just like extinguishing the fire," Gan said in a joint interview with Malaysiakini and KiniTV recently.

He will be taking on former president Ong Tee Keat and the current number two, Liow Tiong Lai, in the Dec 19 party elections.

The MCA, Gan said, is now perceived as a service-based political party, with its leaders giving the impression of being technical officers preoccupied with fire-fighting tasks.

Stressing that community service is not the whole of politics, Gan said MCA has created a public image that it is only doing community service, relocation of Chinese schools and looking into appeals from students for places in local universities.

On cooperation in the BN coalition, which is reeling from two consecutive electoral blows, Gan preferred not to point fingers.

If Umno keeps losing Chinese support...

"I don't like to blame others, but we must focus on evaluation for improvement.

"This is a more positive way of tackling problems, but not finger-pointing... that is not my style," he explained.

Gan also warned BN not to rest on the laurels of its general election victory as the number of young voters will rise over the years.

He even pointed out that should Umno keep losing Chinese support, it is possible that the country's biggest political coalition will be toppled.

"There is no guarantee that BN will rule again after the next election, so we can't take the support of the people for granted.

"Even though Malay votes are with the BN, the fact is that the urban and young voters support Pakatan Rakyat," he added.

Admitting that a greater challenge lies ahead, Gan said there could well be an additional three million young voters in the next four years - which means that the BN must put in greater efforts to win them over.

Yesterday: MCA peace deal like taking drugs, says Gan