I have greatest sympathy and even pity for the MCA President, Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek, who had to declare today that he will not be contesting in the 13th general election, thus becoming the first MCA President not to be fielded.

It is so embarrassing and humiliating an event that Chua had to come out with a statement which will make history as utterly without credibility, claiming that he is opting out of contesting in the 13GE because he is “walking the talk in allowing new and young leaders in the rejuvenation process so that the party will continue to remain relevant”.

In actual fact, having a MCA President who is not allowed to contest in the 13GE by the Barisan Nasional (BN) Chairman and UMNO President, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, is in fact the latest and most powerful evidence of the utter irrelevance of MCA not only in the new Malaysian political landscape but in post-2008 Barisan Nasional politics.

Chua possesses a special illogic when he claimed that his not contesting in the 13GE is to allow him “to prove a point that I am fighting for a cause, that MCA remains relevant”, when the “point” all Malaysians see from the episode is a MCA President who is so irrelevant , unqualified and unsuitable that the UMNO President does not allow him to stand as a BN candidate in the 13GE, as he will not only become a liability for MCA candidates but also to all UMNO and BN candidates as well!

Najib is clearly fearful that Chua’s candidature on the BN ticket will ensure the realisation of the most famous RAHMAN political prophecy with him as the last UMNO/BN Prime Minister

Chua’s claiming that his not contesting as a candidate in the 13GE is “to prove a point that he is fighting for a cause” makes as much sense as his earlier criticism that I am a “political fugitive” for leaving a comparatively safer constituency of Ipoh Timor where I had won with a majority of over 21,000 votes to a high-risk constituency of Gelang Patah which was won by the BN candidate with a 9,000-vote majority in 2008 and a humongous 31,666-vote majority in 2004.

Najib has done a great injustice in not allowing MCA President Chua Soi Lek to stand as a Barisan Nasional candidate in the 13GE.

It is no business of UMNO to dictate who should be the MCA candidate, let alone vetoing the MCA President from contesting in the 13GE.

Will MCA ever thought of imposing a veto on any UMNO candidate, when MCA leaders dare not utter a squeak of protest when Tun Mahathir praised Perkasa’s Ibrahim sky-high as a saviour for Malaysia?

If Chua is not fit to be a BN candidate in the 13GE, how can he be fit and qualified to be the MCA President, sitting in the highest decision-making councils of the Barisan Nasional and government?

If no one in the MCA national leadership dare to speak up against the injustice which Najib has done to Chua and the office of MCA President, let me speak up on Chua and MCA’s behalf – as Najib has no right to stop Chua as a BN candidate in the 13GE when he accepts Chua as an “equal” in the UMNO Supreme Council and even as a member of the BN government’s highest economic planning council in the country.

Who would have imagined that Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Mahathir or Tun Abdullah ever (or even daring to) veto the prerogative of their contemporaries as MCA Presidents like Tun Tan Siew Sin, Tun Dr. Lim Chong Eu, Tan Sri Lee San Choon, Tan Koon Swan, Tun Dr. Ling Liong Sik or Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting as a Barisan Nasional candidate when they were MCA Presidents?