By The Malaysian Insider
July 12, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

JULY 12 — MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek boasted today his party could match Bersih 2.0’s crowd in last weekend’s rally calling for clean and fair elections.

“To gather ten or twenty thousand to demonstrate is nothing great. MCA can organised 50,000 if you want me to do it, anytime,” he told reporters at Wisma MCA here today.

But the veteran politician dismissed their cause, saying “We should not demonstrate for very flimsy reasons, that the electoral roll is tainted and not clean.”

Oh, really?, to paraphrase Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir’s stinger on a radio show last week.

When is rallying for clean electoral rolls a flimsy issue? Or is MCA saying that tainted electoral roll isn’t a big deal?

Is the focus now about flexing muscles and flooding the street to show who has more support?

While the party wasn’t under Dr Chua’s leadership in Election 2008, he has to remember that MCA did badly and has been derided by its main ally Umno for the inability to draw support or votes.

Of course, anyone can bring people to the streets. Bersih did it despite all the road blocks, the lack of public transport and the fear that the riot police will send them packing home.

But if that is Umno and MCA’s cause, then they are unclear on the concept of what they are all about. Instead of boasting that they can bring people to the streets, both should look at getting support to win the next general elections.

Because Bersih has cost them some support. Denigrating that cause will cost them the solid middle class vote that has always supported them in past elections.

One question. What would MCA rally for if it moves 50,000 people to take to the streets? Its time to go past rhetoric and help Barisan Nasional get back its two-thirds parliamentary majority.

Not time to make noise after the fact.