MCA president Liow Tiong Lai urged the Chinese community to remain calm and deliberate on what should be Malaysia’s next course of action, in the wake of the Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu rally on Wednesday.

The transport minister added that Umno also needs to deal with its party’s hardliners, who have been out in full-force since the last general election to put the country on-course towards racial extremism.

“(Umno deputy president) Muhyiddin Yassin must have fully understood that Umno has internal problems it needs to resolve.

“’Hawks’ within Umno are either pushing the rally, or creating problems behind the scenes. If they creating racial tensions, Umno has to take action,” he said.

Liow reportedly told said that he had personally approached Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak (photo) before to emphasize the need to uphold moderation and pluralism in governing the country.

He said upon considering MCA’s position regarding the ‘red shirt’ rally, Umno should have taken steps to ensure that the rally would not harm racial relations.

“But despite that, there are still statements that are harmful to racial relations, including the call to abolish Chinese schools.

“This is why MCA strong opposes (the rally) and Umno must resolve this,” he said, disappointed.

He said that while the rally’s organisers claim to be defending Malay dignity, such tit-for-tat is not beneficial to Malaysia, as it is a country ruled by law.

Chinese political power almost extinguished

Despite seemingly ignored, he said MCA still needs to remain in cabinet to ensure Malaysia stays plural and moderate.

He said the political power of Chinese Malaysians is already on the brink of collapse, so although MCA is left in a weak position following the 13 ^th general election, it must remain in government to act as a balancing force.

He reportedly insisted that MCA is not power-hungry for government posts, but to ensure a plural government can continue to exist.

“If Chinese political power completely collapses, this country would veer towards extremism,” he said in a joint interview with the Chinese press, published in Oriental Daily today.

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