By Thomas Lee
MySinChew.com
The arrogance of Deputy Prime Minister and Umno deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in giving a stern warning on Monday 3 August 2010 to the MCA over the “Allah” issue simply cannot be stomached and tolerated.
If the MCA has any dignity and integrity, it should not allow itself to be so severely rebuked and dictated to publicly by an “equal” partner in the Barisan Nasional coalition.
The MCA is right in standing up for the right of the non-Muslim community to be allowed to freely practise and express their religious faiths using any word they deem fit in Bahasa Malaysia, which is their national language.
The MCA is absolutely right to ask the federal government, of which it is purportedly an essential component, to rescind the ban on non-Muslims using of the word “Allah”, after Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein expressed regrets over the decision to ban its use by his predecessor.
The deputy prime minister had insisted that the MCA must accept the decision of the federal government without questioning, saying that the party should not trigger another debate on the word “Allah.”
The MCA should not allow such haughtiness to go unchallenged, and should ensure its fundamental right is recognised, accepted, and respected as an equal component of the ruling coalition to any assent and/or acquiescence of any decision affecting the nation.
If the MCA is not allowed to voice its views and have a say on such fundamental matters as the right of the non-Muslims to freely use any word in the national language for the purpose of expressing, worshipping, teaching and publishing of their religious faith, then the party should dissolve itself as it is obviously politically impotent, and has no essential practical use to the Chinese community it claims to represent.
Muhyiddin has also questioned the MCA intention in sharing the same platform with the DAP.
“I am not sure why the DAP and the MCA have the same stand in this matter,” he said.
In condemning the MCA stand on the “Allah” issue, which happens to align with that of the DAP, Muhyiddin is showing himself to be superficial and perhaps even shallow in understanding the universal fundamental human, civil and constitutional rights of the people.
The MCA may not be idealogically and politically compatible with the DAP, but the universal principles and values of the fundamental human rights are applicable to political parties of all tints and shades, including even Umno.
So, for the MCA to make a stand on the “Allah” issue, which is basically a human right issue, is both legitimate and justified, even if it is similar to the stand of the DAP.
Take the case of Umno having a similar stand as PAS on the issue of the need for Malay unity.
If Muhyiddin’s argument on the MCA having the same political agenda on the “Allah” issue as the DAP is seen as a perfidy against the Barisan Nasional, then Umno’s willingness to hold unity talk with PAS is likewise a betrayal of trust against the other component parties of the Barisan Nasional.
The MCA must not compromise on this “Allah” issue, which involves the fundamemtal human, civil, and constitutional rights of the people. If it now shrinks from its responsibility to help preserve, protect, and promote the God-given rights of the people, then it can be sure that its days are numbered and the next general election will be its funeral ceremony.
NOTE: As I had expected, MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said in a statement soon after the above Comment was published that the MCA “does not share the same stand with the DAP on the call to lift the ban on the use of ‘Allah’ by non-Muslims.” In view of the party backing out on its stand on the issue, I think it should start making arrangement to hold nationwide funeral ceremonies after the next general election.
#1 by Taxidriver on Tuesday, 3 August 2010 - 10:37 pm
MCA is a major partner in the BN coalition but denied the right to voice its opinion on issues affecting the community it is supposed to represent. What kind of a partnership is that?
If CSL, LTL, WKS the ketua pemuda were to back down after the rebuke by the DPM, it would be better they dissolve the party or leave BN.
#2 by JJx on Tuesday, 3 August 2010 - 10:56 pm
Even my dog at home is not as obedient as MCA!
#3 by Taxidriver on Tuesday, 3 August 2010 - 11:00 pm
Did not CSL say the party must speak-up without fear because “that is what the people want from us, otherwise the party will perish in the next GE” Now he has chicken out over the ‘Allah’ issue. CSL and MCA will have to join KSK and Gerakan after the next GE.
#4 by ktteokt on Tuesday, 3 August 2010 - 11:13 pm
Does MCA ever dare to say NO when UMNO say YES?
#5 by JJx on Tuesday, 3 August 2010 - 11:18 pm
Message to Chua Soi Lek,
You MCA top dog. Come 13 GE, go and take on Kit Siang la. Show your balls la.
#6 by negarawan on Tuesday, 3 August 2010 - 11:25 pm
MCA and MIC are puppets of UMNO, so there is nothing surprising here. Don’t expect these political eunuchs to go against their master!
#7 by sheriff singh on Tuesday, 3 August 2010 - 11:56 pm
Never see him gostan so fast.
#8 by monsterball on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 1:16 am
What kind of politicians who claim to represents the Chinese will allow anyone tell them to toe the line or get lost from BN.
MCA thinks Malaysians are impressed by their race occasions to agree with DAP?
Lets hope MCA will have the last say..just few weeks before 13th GE…to pull out of BN.
Contesting alone will be sure dead ducks.
Close shop they must and close ranks with any PR parties…will bring back some dignities to them.
Are they such a selfish racists lot?
#9 by raven77 on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 1:18 am
Shouldnt Chua be saying…IT IS ME WHO SAID IT!!!
Cannot…will end up like OTK…
Chua this time will be flaccid…. firm cannot already
#10 by Taxidriver on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 1:26 am
Any comments from liow tong lai? what about wee ka siong and that joker kong cho ha ha ha? have they also lost their marbles?
#11 by yhsiew on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 1:34 am
How true were the words of Chua Jui Meng when he said that as long as MCA is within BN, it (MCA) will not be able to champion for the Chinese.
#12 by monsterball on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 1:52 am
MCA politicians have brought nothing but shame to Chinese…
The worst of all their lies is claiming they represents the Chinese…totally not true for decades.
Perhaps some wealthy rich Chinese bosses may vote BN for peace and harmony…but each year…these Chinese bosses have opened their minds to think of Malaysians….as most became millionaires through hard work…and never depended on special treatments.
These Malaysian Chinese will vote against Najib..as they cannot stand his lying and know how unreliable he can be.
MCA is a dead party with few hundreds trying to impress Chinese how powerful they are.
Have they no shame at all..
#13 by boh-liao on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 2:12 am
Look what happened 2 OTK n LLS when UmnoB marah
Blue film actor takut lah sampai cannot erect
How 2 stand firm n tumescent ah, U joking yah
Mana Cina-qui Adabola (MCA)
Cow hentam fr d front, Toyol hentam fr d back, aiyoyo got 2 tahan lah, what 2 do
#14 by monsterball on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 3:00 am
Mahathir said..”Lots of things happened in the cabinet I don’t know”
Can you believe it? Is he saying he is the dumbest PM? I guess he prefers to be call a stupid dumb PM than admitting he knows all about the PKFZ billions ripped off.
He knows he will need to testify and so said…he is willing to testify…if called upon to testify
That is his art to say things in advanced…so that Malaysians will think he is a willing witness WITHOUT be called upon.
That is his style …to cushioned off police “arrest” and made it sound like he is a willing witness.
You cannot beat this man chess playing tactics…with two steps ahead of his opponent.
However this chess playing tactics are not for an honorable win of a smart game of chess….but from the most crooked mind to keep fooling Malaysians.
However Malaysians know his style and you can expect….”I don’t know”… “I forgot” will be his answers to questions…and that’s it…not enough evidences.
All can blame what a stupid PM he was..no p[roblem.
Mahathir is free from blame and Ling is freed from lack of evidences.
However if UMNO B finds that the voters will be happy to see Ling in jail…they will find a way to say….he fooled Mahathir…..and into the jail he goes.
Just watch the show and enjoy.
#15 by monsterball on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 3:22 am
Remember…Mahathir was and is still the hardest working PM…in office at 6am and out at 8pm everyday..until the last day of his Premiership.
Crooks usually work till late at night to check all are done safely…until ‘secret documents” keep flying out into the open.
You mean Mahathir did not read all “secret document”?
Sure he did and forgot..but have an elephant memory if he chooses to do so.
He keeps contradicting himself…like all BN crooks…that we can see clearly liars are desperate to cover up….regardless how idiotic that statement maybe.
I guess Ling Liong Sik will now feel “the palace of justice”…as he called it….on his side…with Mahathir coming to his rescue.
If we want real Justice…Malaysians must change the government and start all over again..with the likes of AP Queen…Indian King…Dictator….Murderer….Sandman…and so many more….all arrested and Malaysians will be contented.
Less than that…all are going to suffer.
#16 by boh-liao on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 3:46 am
Duit masuk pockets, semua pun tak ingat loh, including bapa’s racial origin
At most, only selective memories, like can ingat details of sodomy I n cake shops
#17 by undertaker888 on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 7:10 am
of all the dpm we have, muyiddin is the most idiotic we ever encountered. Seems like he is scared stiff of debate. the most he can pick from his brain is ‘chauvinistic Chinese’. That’s how umnonites think alike, like toyol.
if mca and dap cannot agree on something that is right, what else can they agree? Oppose for the sake of opposing? That is muyiddins kindergarten level of reasoning.
Mca, cepat cepat dissolve and join pakatan lah. Do something with dignity for goodness sake. 50 years of being a robber not enough?
#18 by Bigjoe on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 7:49 am
MCA standing firm? Forget it. That is not what eunuch’s do.
This was never about MCA, its Najib that is sending the signal on it. As predicted, when push comes to shove, he let himself emasculated.
What we are seeing is mix signals that Najib has been sending out first to us, now its to those within BN and UMNO. UMNO/BN hypocrisy is just hitting close to home, coming back to the nest where it started.
Those who believe that Najib want reform but is taking things slowly basically are kidding themselves. If such a plan exist, it is worst than the plans he publicly oversold but did not deliver. Even if you want to take things slowly, this is not how you do it. You do it by replacing key institutions that will ensure these things don’t happen – that don’t send out mix signals to those that support you. Doing things slowly is not about avoiding a fight, its about planning a fight. There is no plan to fight. All he has is a bunch of talk but no real plan.
MCA guilt is not just weak-backbone, they are guilty of thinking they have something worthwhile to work on. They are wasting our time, their time and effort and WE pay for it. and they don’t care. They are simply guilty of being childishly selfish and self-centered.
#19 by Jeffrey on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 7:51 am
In response to DPM Muhyiddin’s rebuke “I am not sure why the DAP and the MCA have the same stand in this matter”, MCA President Dr Chua Soi Lek said “MCA does not share the same stand with DAP on the call to lift the ban on the use of ‘Allah’ by non-Muslims …MCA was merely ‘echoing’ the wishes of non-governmental organisation Christian Federation of Malaysia after a dialogue with them during the party’s presidential council last week.”(The MalaysianInsider’s report Aug 3rd)
This is a pathetic cowardly apology, not even a defence!
In the first place what does Dr. CSL mean it is not the same stand as DAP’s?
It definitely is.
However there is nothing wrong of MCA to share same stand as Opposition DAP if the reason for such coincidental sharing of stand is by reason only of the stand being correct and right from standpoint of universal principles or the nation’s welfare and healing! After all if it were not a correct stand why would Home minister Hishammuddin Hussein himself express regret over his predecessor’s decision to impose the ban?
It is only wrong if MCA shares the same stand with DAP because it emphatises with DAP’s political agenda or has switched subservience to DAP instead of UMNO per se!
These two clear and distinct basis for same stand to be taken should not be mixed or muddied.
The fact that the MCA president allows MCA’s position to be skewed – so that the first position become confused as if it were (illogically) the same as second – shows a subservient attitude that paralises the brain facuilties, when it comes to self defence, which self defence sounds actually more like an apology for even doing and saying the right thing…
When one apologises by saying that one is “merely echoing the wishes of non-governmental organisation Christian Federation of Malaysia after a dialogue”, the choice of the word “echoing” means one is merely a sounding board of the Christian Federation of Malaysia which basically implies that the MCA, besides being a sounding board, has no stand of its own! What a nonsensical thing to say!
Dr CSL should know better that there is much more to be said for growing a little spine along one’s backbone and not just between the legs!
#20 by Jeffrey on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 7:55 am
IN the March 2008 general election, the MCA suffered severe losses. (If Sibu by-election were a forewarning it will suffer even more in the next!) It was in April this year MCA was told by none other than Hishammuddin that MCA must prove itself relevant to re-capture its Chinese support or else….
Now how could MCA do so if, even when it ironically takes the same stand as Hishammuddin in regretting his predecessor’s decision to impose the ban – and go a notch further to suggest revocation of the ban – it is rebuked by DPM as “sharing the same stand” as DAP??
It is a case of MCA being a loser whichever side – heads or tails – the coin flips!
Which only shows that MCA, in spite of its lack of support from its Chinese constitutents, is tolerated to be in BN because it is a whipping boy for UMNO politicians to score brownie points to get Malay votes from whipping it than for MCA itself to get Chinese votes, though it has been told to do so.
Which is also why MCA politicians get the safe seats from UMNO inclined Malay majority areas than Chinese majority constitutencies.
The wonder is how MCA could have the spirit and stamina to persevere for so long to maintain this undignified charade of cringing obedience masquerading under the empty rhetoric “equal power sharing” – that imposes even on the naivette!
Thomas Lee of MySinChew.com gives a reasonable advice that “MCA should stand firm or close shop”!
When one does not stand up for the right thing or if one backs down even when one does or says the right thing, one is perceived forever weak and suitably qualified to be fair game for all others (whether within same coalition or the opposing) to incessantly take advantage of, at its expense. MCA will become the Malaysian Chicken Association instead!
#21 by son of perpaduan on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 8:13 am
You think CSL dares to agitate Umno? Look what happen to OTK, when he raised the PKFZ scandal, he adherence himself with dignity, and now he end up himself similar like homeless rats.
#22 by omeqiu on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 8:47 am
What can a man caught with his pants down do?
#23 by dagen on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 8:53 am
Look at ling. A tun and the first tun to face criminal charge. We know of umno’s bullying ways. But in the past umno just talked down to mca (and gerakan too) and belittled them. Now umno quite apparently has up their bullying tactics. They bring criminal charges against those useless mca people.
Charging the ex-president is the same as charging the entire mca and is a clear attempt by umno to stamp their authority and power and their misplaced ketuanan over the chinese community in the country.
WTF.
Even hardcore johorean mca supporters would find this difficult to swallow. I dont support mca. Never did. But I still would like to question umno: “Why only ling? What about the rest? Those umno people named in the report?”
Sabahans and sarawakians learn your lesson now! Your beloved umno-aligned leaders could similarly be destroyed by umno and like mca the party would not even dare to protest.
Vote pakatan to stop all these nonsense and all these mistreatments and all the fear umno have been spreading and all the abuse and corruption practised by them.
#24 by SENGLANG on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 9:16 am
All those stupid idiots members who have voted in a tainted leader now they realized how easy it was for him to be hold ransom by the tai-ko.
any way mca is irrelevant to the ordinary people it is only relevant to those who still join them to get some easy money. the struggle has long lost
they are just are bunch of idiots who know only one thing ie to kow tau to the tai ko
just look at how silly for another loser who has made minister who has directed pks to pay millions that was not morally bound to pay.
mca has become history it time for some one to just write about mca and not talk about their relevancy in Malaysia politic
#25 by baochingtian on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 9:40 am
CSL commented that the CM of Penang can’t even handle a “junior officer” (as worded “small” in chinese). So this is how he handle a very senior officer – flip flop and u-turn as he deems fit?
He did not provide the assistance yet he’s making unnecessary comments to down-grade the people elected CM. He’s a shame to the chinese community as a leader. Obviously, Penang doesn’t welcome such a party leader if he can’t contribute to the development and well beings of Penang and its people.
#26 by Bigjoe on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 10:19 am
I like baochingtian comparison of CSL with CM on handling civil servants. Nothing more pathetic than a bad boy who turns out to be pathetic coward. Who’s the man NOW? Who’s the stud now?
#27 by Cinapek on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 11:32 am
“..In view of the party backing out on its stand on the issue, I think it should start making arrangement to hold nationwide funeral ceremonies after the next general election….”
MCA is already in the coffin. This issue just drove another nail into final chapter for this party.
By capitulating to the DPM’s warning, they have done irreparable damage to the last vestiges of pride and integrity they have left as a race based party representing the Chinese. They are as good as dead.
This is the kind of stand you would have expected from a party which is led by a leader with a severe baggage around his neck.
As for the DPM, why the double standard? If MCA is wrong to make the stand, what about your own Home Minister who started it by voicing his regret over this issue? Why did you not also castigate him? I am glad you took this stand because it betrays your true character.
And why did you not praise the Opposition when they were on the same platform with BN when they supported the Govt on the Gaza issue?
Last but not least, support for an issue is a matter of supporting what is right or wrong and has nothing to do with politics.
#28 by yhsiew on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 11:55 am
MCA is a redundant party. If tai-ko UMNO can make all the decisions for MCA, then there is no need to have MCA. Voters should not waste their time and energy on MCA.
#29 by rahmanwang on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 12:00 pm
What do you expect from a porno star?You are asking too much from a porno star.Feed him some Viagra, that’s what he need.
#30 by boh-liao on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 - 10:47 pm
MCA 2 say sorry 2 UmnoB?
No need lah, MCA love UmnoB
“Love means not ever having to say you’re sorry”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7676EC06oc
#31 by johnnypok on Thursday, 5 August 2010 - 4:16 am
“Sodomy 3” = MCA sodomised by DPM
#32 by Mel_a_yu on Friday, 6 August 2010 - 10:44 am
Only one simple explanation to this: Muhyiddin knows his religion, Hishamuddin doesn’t. Muhyiddin knows his stuff and is not lost in translation. He knows that “Allah” is a NAME and not a WORD which is equated to the word “God”. Hishamuddin is lost in translation or pretends to be ‘lost’ for the sake of politics.
Hishamuddin’s stand is similar to the PAS stand. for the sake of politics PAS has decided to discard its ‘religious’ cloke for awhile. After all the ‘Islamist’ party only ‘attacks’ Muslims.
#33 by ktteokt on Sunday, 8 August 2010 - 10:28 am
LLS is not a TUN now! His title has just been “REVERSED” by UMNO to a “NUT”!