By Clara Chooi
April 21, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 — The DAP challenged MCA leaders today to dissolve their party or call on the prime minister to resign should he lose Chinese community support in the coming general election.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang charged that the MCA was being hypocritical in calling for Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud’s resignation due to his failure to deliver the Chinese vote last week, pointing out that the MCA itself had performed no better in Election 2008.

In the Sarawak state polls last Saturday, Barisan Nasional (BN) lost 16 seats to the opposition, most of them Chinese-majority urban seats.

In Election 2008, MCA suffered its worst ever electoral defeat when it saw its parliamentary representation cut by more than half from 31 to just 15 seats.

“Now they are asking Taib to resign on grounds that he lost the Chinese vote. Will they apply the same standard to PM (Datuk Seri) Najib (Razak)?

“And why is MCA still in the Cabinet? Why was MCA’s president (Datuk Seri Dr) Chua Soi Lek so keen on securing his son (Chua Tee Yong) a deputy minister’s post?” Lim asked.

DAP publicity chief Tony Pua, who led the party’s campaign in Sarawak, agreed, saying that the MCA should “dissolve” itself for having failed in its purpose of representing the Chinese community.

“If you are talking about support based on race, the MCA has failed to represent the Chinese. So their organisation is completely irrelevant. They should dissolve themselves,” he said.

Lim and Pua were responding to a statement by MCA vice-president Gan Ping Sieu yesterday calling for Taib’s resignation due to the outcome of Saturday’s polls.

The DAP leaders also berated MCA’s Loh Seng Kok for “insulting the intelligence of Sarawak voters” when he claimed the Chinese community had been duped into voting for the opposition for racial reasons.

“They are insulting their intelligence because Sarawak voters, all those who supported DAP, were voting for the Pakatan Rakyat (PR). They were voting for new politics which surpasses racial boundaries,” said Lim.

He pointed out that the outcome of the Sarawak polls had not only shown an increase in Chinese community support towards the DAP but an improvement in support from all communities towards PR as a pact.

This, he said, was mirrored in how the opposition had managed to increase its popular vote from 37 per cent in 2006 to 45.5 per cent or 300, 288 votes while BN managed to secure 54.5 per cent or 372, 379 votes.

“MCA and Gerakan leaders are feeling so aggrieved that they were treated with utter contempt in Sarawak that they are making these nonsensical statements.

“It is their way to vent their anger. They should know their days are numbered unless they change and rise above racial politics,” said Lim.

Pua also pointed out that it was the MCA’s parallel, the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), that had played the race card in the polls in order to convince people to reject the opposition.

In its campaign, the SUPP had warned Sarawakians that they would lose Chinese representation in the state Cabinet if they voted for the DAP.

On April 16, however, the DAP scored an electoral upset by winning 12 of the 15 seats it contested, most of them Chinese-majority urban seats.

The SUPP was nearly wiped out when the party, which claims to represent the Chinese, won in just six of the 19 seats it contested, only two of which were Chinese majority while the rest were Dayak seats.

“I want to challenge MCA to point out when and where in our entire campaign in Sarawak were we racist? Go back to school and learn what racism is.

“Fighting corruption, abuse of power and nepotism is not racism. These issues cut across the races and if MCA thinks they are racist, they should evaluate their own party constitution which prohibits other races from taking part in their organisation,” said Pua.

Lim agreed, pointing out that the MCA and Gerakan were largely to blame for the SUPP’s fall in Sarawak as leaders for both the peninsula-based BN partners had joined in the election campaign.

“The real reason why SUPP did so badly was because of the assistance rendered by MCA and Gerakan leaders who have only served to highlight the need for the country to rise above race and go for new politics. Since peninsula voters have rejected Gerakan and MCA, the Sarawak voters are doing the same.

“Nobody cared about them in Sarawak. Not just that, they were treated like garbage and with utter contempt,” he said.