By Shannon Teoh | May 12, 2011 The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 — Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek has accused DAP of dividing the country and causing the Chinese community to be isolated in the opposition. “DAP’s suggestion of a two-party political system will soon turn into a two-race political system. The Chinese will be the opposition while the others will be in government,” the MCA president said in a video posted by his party on video-sharing site YouTube yesterday.
The former health minister’s statement mirrors that of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who accused DAP of running a racist campaign in the April 16 Sarawak election in which the party doubled its presence in the state assembly from six to 12.
“Malaysia faces a grave danger of being divided by two parties — one Malay-dominated by default and the other Chinese by choice. This will not be good for Malaysia. “But this is what the DAP is striving for. A two-party system based on race will not contribute to stability much less national unity,” the former prime minister had said.
In last month’s Sarawak vote, DAP nearly wiped out its rival Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) in Chinese-majority areas when the latter only won in two such seats.
In the aftermath, Dr Chua told SUPP not to take any state Cabinet posts as it had been rejected by Chinese voters.
MCA later said that it would also stay out of the federal Cabinet if it failed to improve on its 2008 general election performance, where it won just 15 of 40 parliament seats it contested.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak echoed this statement and called for the Chinese community to vote for MCA if they still wanted to representation in Putrajaya.
DAP responded by accusing Barisan Nasional (BN) of threatening Chinese voters and failing to understand democracy.
In the 71-second video, Dr Chua also accused DAP of “hoodwinking” voters by “pretending to be multiracial.”
“DAP only dares to contest in Chinese-majority constituencies. If DAP is not a Chinese-based political party, why is it that wherever they go, DAP always emphasises Chinese issues?” he said in the video.