Although there are some grassroots unhappy with certain Umno leaders' racial remarks and even wanted to cut ties with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, the party has no plans to leave the BN coalition.

MCA will continue to be in the ruling coalition as it is one of the creators of BN, said party president Liow Tiong Lai.

"MCA will continue to rule the country with BN spirit. We have never thought of ruling the country on our own.

"Like it or not, there are Malays, Indians and Chinese in the country, all of us must conform with one another to rule the country,"

In a joint interview with the Chinese media in conjunction with the party's annual general meeting this weekend, Liow emphasised that although MCA is a race-based party, it's on multiracial line.

When asked if MCA will review the cooperation with Umno after many issues in the past, he said there are many moderate and good leaders in Umno, although some are hawkish.

These moderate leaders are concerned about racial harmony in the country, Liow said according to a Sin Chew Daily report.

"We must let these moderate people stand up and grow strong, not the extremists."

He added that racial issues in the country has reached a "very problematic" level, and BN must deal with it immediately.

Policy of discriminating Chinese

BN cannot ignore the racial problems and MCA is very unhappy with certain quarters calling for the government to shut down Chinese schools, said Liow.

He said some foreigners even called him to ask whether Malaysia is implementing a policy of discriminating the Chinese.

"A lot of foreign friends called to ask me, is our country anti-Chinese?

"When some radio stations in China interviewed me, it shocked me because the first question they asked was whether Malaysia is implementing Chinese discrimination policy?

"I firmly told them that we don't have discrimination policy because we have a plural, inclusive and moderate policy," Liow said.

However he admitted that if foreigners can feel the Chinese being "discriminated", then the local people must feel it even stronger that our racial relationship is deteriorating.

Therefore, he said, the government must take swift action when someone is playing on racial sentiments before it spreads.

When asked if MCA's performance in the coming election will be harmed due to Najib's 1MDB issue, Liow said the party wanted to see the truth revealed.

He said the party has made a clear stand, that the government must be accountable and transparent, and they must be answerable to the people.

"Najib said he will settle the issue within six months, therefore give him some time to solve the problem," Liow added.