by Mariam Mokhtar
MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek’s comments about both Umno and PAS using religion to dominate the Malays and influence their vote, is a bit too little, too late. For decades, he, like previous MCA leaders, pandered to the wishes of Umno. Now that PAS has teamed up with DAP and PKR to become a credible opposition party, it is Dr. Chua who must contemplate his standing in his community and evaluate the worth of his party’s friendship with Umno.
Dr. Chua’s hypocritical attack on PAS is ill-judged and offensive. PAS have always been consistent in its Islamic roots but when it morphed into a modern Islamist party, it created panic in Umno.
He should direct his vitriol at Umno only, for it jumped onto the religious bandwagon, to appear more conservative than PAS so as to lure Malay voters.
Perhaps it is Dr. Chua who has been caught on the hop, just as in his previous indiscretion?
Dr. Chua urged the Chinese community to think about the impact if PAS were to rule at the federal level. He said, “Do not be too optimistic that if PAS comes to power, the country will be free from corruption and other problems”.
This is a bit rich coming from him. Is this an attempt to suck up to Prime Minister Najib, to Umno or to his own party and community? Was he as voluble complaining about the excesses, in previous years?
Corruption is not a new phenomenon. Many people already hold Dr. Chua in increasing contempt, and know that leaders like him have only thought about their own personal interests and feathered their nest. For him to speak out against PAS like this is a cheap shot in the dark.
He also said, “Although Malaysia is also a Muslim-majority country, we are luckier because of the moderate and pragmatic policies implemented by the BN government.”
When will he be man-enough to admit that the policies of the BN government have made this country bankrupt and brought it to its knees?
Furthermore, his attempts at scaremongering by alluding to PAS as a doomed power have been ineffective. He described the hypothetical situation of rule under PAS and said we would ‘have less democracy because of the emphasis on religion’.
Is he unaware that Umno has already provided these – a lowering of democratic values and religious intolerance?
He also reportedly said that Muslim ruled countries placed their emphasis on religion rather than on education, that their illiteracy rates were very high, especially among women, that these countries have elections but also have councils of Muslim elders enjoying absolute power and that policies were not on par with global development.
Not content with deriding PAS, Dr. Chua feels the need at Islam-bashing.
He should realise that BN has managed to achieve all that he has just described. Our education system is botched and our children receive a substandard level of education, compared with earlier generations. Our choice of senior Muslim clerics make statements that make us look ridiculous – doing yoga is practising Hinduism, wearing football jerseys equates to devil-worship. Surprisingly, child marriages are positively encouraged. So how vocal has Dr. Chua been, to condemn these acts?
He continued his attack on PAS and said that people in Muslim-countries had low incomes, high unemployment rates and were racked by a lot of controversies based on the interpretation of law because their leaders were mostly fundamentalists.
But Umno has achieved all of these, with ease.
Given that Dr. Chua’s list covers corruption, abuses of power, racial and religious discrimination, repression and oppression, it would suggest that we need strong leaders who will fight for a Malaysian solution to these problems. Race-based politics are a thing of the past and have failed to attain unity of purpose.
The shocking decline in our country’s fortunes is because of the failure of BN. Both Umno and MCA have been complacent and allowed our country to slide into decline. Perhaps these parties have overstayed their welcome.