By Douglas Tan | November 18, 2011
Free Malaysia Today

Remember the adage: silence is golden? I’m sure many parents have taught their children that if you do not have anything nice to say, you should keep quiet.

However in politics these days, we have mud-slinging from both sides of the political divide.

It appears that the less relevant you have become, the more you have to shout at the top of your lungs.

For the MCA, it is able to see that it is fast disappearing off the political scene just like Gerakan.

The party has been criticised over the years for being gutless and pandering to the demands of Umno, just to ensure that it still gets a slice of the pie.

It arrogates to itself the divine duty of representing and fighting for Chinese interests in Malaysia. Are we still under the illusion that we need elected representatives of the same ethnicity?

If Barisan Nasional component parties still believe this after having the “1Malaysia” concept shoved down their throats and pinned on their lapels, it quickly becomes clear that they are only interested in serving themselves.

The Malaysian Chinese diaspora in Malaysia is made up of clans which include the Hokkien, Cantonese, Hainanese, Hakka, Foochow, Teochew, among others. From the beginning, they settled in this country and worked hard to get to where they are today.

What has the community asked for? Just freedom to do business, educate their children well and be allowed to live and prosper.

However, even going back to the days when Umno pushed forward the NEP (New Economic Policy), did the MCA speak up at all?

Bashing the DAP

Nowadays, the MCA has resorted to attacking the DAP at every opportunity it gets.

Not a day goes by without Dr Chua Soi Lek or Wee Ka Siong making a press statement in The Star and the Chinese language press about the “shortcomings” of the DAP, with their favourite targets being Lim Guan Eng, Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh.

Kit Siang and Karpal Singh have been a constant thorn in the side of the MCA. Due to the consistency of the DAP as both a party and a state government, the MCA has struggled to find issues to harp on. So it brings up old issues or flogs dead ones.

Wee has just hit out at Karpal, after the latter expressed his support for Anwar Ibrahim to be the next prime minister.

Going back to the Sept 16, 2008 fiasco, Karpal was not impressed that Anwar wanted to form a government with frogs coming over from the Barisan Nasional. This issue has been long resolved as the event has already taken place.

When you have dissenting voices within a coalition, this is normal and healthy as a form of public debate. Throughout this entire episode, not once did the DAP say that it would abandon Pakatan Rakyat.
Wee represents a party which has no say, so expressing its own views on national issues is an alien concept.

Hudud again?

Not stopping there, Wee then continues to flog the hudud horse and how it would infringe on the rights of non-Muslims.

After discussing the matter with several Malay friends and colleagues, it is clear that the principle of hudud is seriously misunderstood.

The MCA is guilty of propagating misinformation in order to make its position look better.

Although opposition parties are not immune from doing this, at the very least the MCA could be creative about it, apart from its “No to Hudud” and “No to DAP” campaign.

The DAP and PAS have already reached a consensus about the issue. Constitutionally, it has been clearly established that hudud cannot be implemented.

Despite this, the debate rages on, fuelled by the irresponsibility of BN component parties, especially the MCA, to spook the non-Muslim community.

Looking like fools

It is evident that when DAP and PAS do something, the MCA will be the first one to jump on them. But on issues of national importance, such as the irregularities exposed by the Auditor-General in his report, the scandals overseen by several ministries and Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s RM10 million condominium in Bangsar, the MCA remains as quiet as a mouse.

If you want to debate about integrity, why not show some? This is because MCA knows that if it voices out any dissent against its Umno masters, it would be cast out to the side of the road.

MCA has shown that it is completely incapable of voicing out on issues which are important to ordinary Malaysians, but is more interested in engaging in politicking.

When MCA central committee member Ei Kim Hock mentioned that overseas Malaysians do not deserve to vote because they are out of touch with the real issues, it became obvious that the party itself is out of touch.

The party earned the ire of the NGO Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia Australia (SABMoz) as well as other groups, all saying that it (voting) is a basic right enshrined in our Federal Constitution.

It is clear that the move is purely political, as the MCA knows that overseas voters are more likely to vote against them. As a result, it is far more important to preserve its political position than uphold the constitution.

Chua was too late with damage control and conjures up an absurd notion that the logistics would be impractical.

All we have to do is to take a leaf out of the book of the Australians, British or Americans who regularly vote at foreign missions.

If it is anyone who would find it a logistics nightmare, it would be the Americans by the sheer size and population of the country, but they cope just fine. If a country of 300 million people can do it, handling 28 million citizens should be a piece of cake, right?

MCA leaders are brilliant con artists, having deceived the people for so many years that they are a credible force.

One would sincerely hope we have woken up, and no longer tolerate their hollow talk. It is for the better. Goodbye, MCA. Thank you for the music.

Douglas Tan obtained his law degree from the University of Nottingham and currently works in the manufacturing industry. He is an FMT columnist.