Should we pity MCA? | Free Malaysia Today

Should we pity MCA?

Stanley Koh | April 8, 2013
A party strongman pleads for voters’ mercy, but some people believe that hypocrisy, fraud and tyranny are unpardonable.
COMMENT
Not for the first time in its recent history, MCA is now reduced to begging for votes.

“I hope the people will give us some votes. Don’t make us eat egg,” party vice-president Donald Lim said in a recent interview with Oriental News Daily, a Chinese language online newspaper.

He claimed that MCA, despite its disastrous showing in the 2008 election, had spent the last five years working hard to regain voter support, implying that it deserved pity, if not appreciation.

Lim’s plea was directed primarily at voters in Selangor, where he is MCA’s state liaison chief, but the humble pie he ate came from the same oven that baked the one Ong Ka Chuan felt compelled to swallow just before the 2008 election, when he was the party’s secretary-general.

Addressing voters in Perak’s Kinta Valley, Ong said: “If you have five people in your household, I plead with you to give one vote to MCA.”

According to English theologian Frederick William Robertson (1816-1853), there are three things that deserve no mercy: hypocrisy, fraud and tyranny.

Many of MCA’s detractors would say that the party has been guilty of all three sins.

In 1986, the party’s think-tank pointed out the need for electoral reforms, arguing that Barisan Nasional’s gerrymandering of electoral constituencies made a mockery of the one-man-one-vote principle.

What has MCA, as Umno’s oldest partner in BN, done to press for reform from this unjust system? Nothing.
The party’s leaders have not lifted a finger in defence of democratic values, but have certainly been raising their hands in support of constitutional amendments to legalise and perpetuate this injustice. They did this in 1973 and again in 1994.

Current party president Dr Chua Soi Lek has even openly rejected accusations that the electoral system was unfair and accused Pakatan Rakyat and polls watchdog Bersih of lying about irregularities in the voter rolls.
Special relationship

Yet Chua, who has sat in many MCA steering committees over the years, is fully aware that the party leadership has been working in cahoots with Umno, which has a special relationship with the Election Commission.

The minutes of MCA meetings on the delineating of constituencies over the years would give ample proof that the party’s state leaders have been working hand in glove with the various chief ministers and menteris besar to preserve BN’s strategic election interests.

Instead of answering the public’s call for fairness and a just electoral system, the MCA has been ditching democratic principles and values for its own interests.

In 2001, when Chinese NGOs and community leaders pleaded with the party leadership not to acquire Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press, did MCA listen? Did it care for the Chinese community’s interest in the strengthening of democratic institutions, including a free press?

Chua, who was then a member of the party’s central committee, fully supported the move to acquire the Chinese newspapers.

Last month, commenting on DAP’s strategy of moving its representatives out of their traditional seats, Chua said they were “running away” because they had failed to serve their constituents.
Has he forgotten about the 1990 general election, when then party president Dr Ling Liong Sik shifted from Bagan to Labis?

At the time of Ling’s switch, Chinese voters made up 63% of the Bagan electorate, but only 46% in Labis. He did win in Labis, but only 15% of the Chinese voted for him.

It is already common knowledge that MCA cannot survive without the support of the Malays, or rather Umno, as figures from past general elections indicate. No wonder many current MCA leaders behave as if they owe more gratitude to Umno leaders than to the voting public.

A political image is like a cement mix, according to American politician Walter Mondale. “When it’s wet, you can move it around and shape it. But at some point in time, it hardens and there’s almost nothing you can do to reshape it.”

This is the predicament facing MCA. The voting support from the Chinese community is at its weakest, and the public is eager to see whether the party will, as Chua has pledged, withdraw from active governance in the event that it performs worse than in 2008.

If MCA has been deaf to the public’s pleading against its support of the hundreds of constitutional amendments that facilitate power abuse, why should the public now listen to its pleas?
As a consolation to Donald Lim, we should remind him that eggs are nutritious, after all. Utter defeat may be just what MCA needs in order to reform itself.

Stanley Koh is a former head of MCA’s research unit. He is now a FMT columnist.

Comments

  1. Kepada Yip Kum Fook (MCA GOMBAK)
    Menbaca berita dari Media dan berpendapat berita dari orang ramai Taman Desa Jaya, Kepong berkenaan kelakuan yang benar-benar “U” (Yip Kum Fook) tipu perempuan dan merosakan keluarga orang lain dan memakan wang Tokong, bermalu-malukan parti MCA Malaysia, masyarakat Cina dan penganut Agama Buddha…….

    Kami harap “U” menujukan satu contohan yang baik, letakan jawatan Ketua MCA Gombak dan pengerusi SAMNAK SAMBODHI dan lain-lain jawatan dengan segara.

    ReplyDelete
  2. “MCA GOMBAK” YIP KUM FOOK MAIN ISTERI ORANG

    尊敬的女士们,先生们,
    遗憾地告知,SAMNAK SAMBODHI BUDDHIST TEMPLE (菩提寺) No. 19 Jalan 38 Taman Desa Jaya, Kepong, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia。Gombak MCA YIP KUM FOOK 领导的菩提寺, 利用缅甸佛教僧侣做生意,婚姻行政.

    外国人非法聚集的地方......这是很可耻的佛教。

    希望马来西亚人民和政府采取行动,这样人民和国家不不会坠毁

    Tuan-tuan & Puan-puan yang dihormati sekalian
    Dengan dukacitanya di maklumkan sebuah BUDDHIS KUIL SAMNAK SAMBODHI, No: 19 Jalan 38 Taman Desa Jaya, Kepong, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. Yang di pimpin oleh MCA Gombak YIP KUM FOOK dan guna (upah) Sami Buddha dari Myanmar menjalankan perniagaan, perkahwinan dan lain-lain di dalam Kuil.

    Juga gunakan gelanggang politik dan tempat berkumpul orang asing menjalankan perkara haram……ini sangat-lah memalukan orang yang beragama Buddha.

    Harap orang ramai dan kerajaan Negara Malaysia mengambil tindakan, supaya rakyat dan Negara tidak terjahanam

    Dear Ladies & Gentlemen,
    With a deep regret informed SAMNAK SAMBODHI BUDDHIST TEMPLE at No. 19 Jalan 38 Taman Desa Jaya, Kepong, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. That the party led by Gombak MCA YIP KUM FOOK and employment (wage) Buddhist monks from Myanmar to do business, marriage etc. in the Temple.

    Also use the political arena and the run gathering of illegal aliens ...... this very shameful of Buddhist

    Hope the people and the government of Malaysia to take action, so that the peoples and not crashed

    MCA MALAYSIA

    ReplyDelete
  3. YIP KUM FOOK (MCA GOMBAK CHAIRMAN) MAKES BUDDHIST & MCA SHAMEFUL!

    敬爱的马来亚佛总理事先生Buddhist Maha Vihara, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia佛寺理事先生以及佛教信徒.

    自从Yip Kum Fook (MCA Gombak Chairman)当任主席, 有预谋的迫走本地和尚(吉兰丹), 而遠聘缅甸和尚, 当任主持之后Samnak Sambodhi Thai Buddhist Temple No: 19 Jalan 38 Taman Desa Jaya, Kepong 52100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia(暹廟)就一直发生种种的是是非非, 以引起方民間議論纷纷.

    其因是Yip Kum Fook (MCA Gombak Chairman)所领导的理事会, 勾结外耒的缅甸和尚, 以啇業経营, 不依佛法的精神办事, 只借宗教之名捞取权和私利所引起………. 最近又自行一套商业手法, 规定任和人, 若想出家当和尚修道者, 必先供给RM400大元, 否则免谈. 這种啇業手法, 已引起广大的信徒愤怒而不满.

    Samnak Sambodhi Thai Buddhist Temple (暹廟)是佛总之联会, 而身佛堂之主席Yip Kum Fook (MCA Gombak Chairman)不以佛陀的教誨, 修心養性, 却反其道而行, 接着权势, 无悪不做, 三妻四妾, 骗财骗色, 破坏別人的家庭.....现在他的排聞满天飞, 不但给佛寺帶耒不好的名声, 也間接的耻辱佛教信仰者.

    所从我们祈望马来亚佛总与Buddhist Maha Vihara, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia理事同仁, 给以关注, 共創義举, 维护佛法

    此致, 并
    祝安康, 工作愉快.

    ReplyDelete

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