An MCA national leader said that if the Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz does not takes responsibility for his mistake, Barisan Nasional may have to pay the price in the forthcoming 14th General Election.

The MCA-owned online Star headlined this story: “Barisan could pay the price if Nazri doesn’t apologise“.

The MCA national leadership cannot be more wrong, as Barisan Nasional would have to pay the price if UMNO does not apologise, as it is not just Nazri alone, but other UMNO Ministers and leaders as well who launched the malicious and savage attacks on Robert Kuok in a four-day spree, all on a false and baseless accusation that Kuok was funding the DAP to topple the Barisan Nasional government.

Why is UMNO/BN so afraid that Robert Kuok would giving donations to DAP, and isn’t this the democratic right of Robert Kuok to donate to any political party he chooses?

But what is really intriguing in this comment is whether the MCA National leadership is preparing for a worse electoral showing in the 14th general election as compared to the 13th general election, when the MCA was reduced to a 7/11 party winning only seven parliamentary and eleven state assembly seats, and was preparing the grounds for blaming a worse MCA performance in the 14th General Election on UMNO, using Nazri as a scapegoat?

In a way, the MCA leadership may not be wrong.

For instance, whether the three top MCA leaders, MCA President Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, MCA Deputy President Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong and MCA Secretary-General Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan can be re-elected to Parliament and continue as Ministers will be solely dependent on UMNO’s Malay votes – as the trio’s constituencies of Bentong, Ayer Hitam and Tanjong Malim respectively share one thing in common in having more Malay voters than Chinese voters.

In fact, this applies to six of the seven parliamentary seats won by MCA in the 13th General Election, although MCA claims to be the only poltical party in the country which exclusively represents the Chinese!

If UMNO loses support from the electorate, and unable to swing Malay voter support for UMNO candidates, let alone the three top MCA leaders, because of a swing of previous Malay support for UMNO to Pakatan Harapan, are we going to have a spectacle of the MCA blaming UMNO for failing to get the three top MCA leaders elected to Parliament and the Cabinet?

Somehow, it is just unthinkable to envisage the three top UMNO leaders, the UMNO President, UMNO Deputy President and UMNO Secretary-General having to depend solely on MCA’S Chinese votes to win!

An online newspaper has quoted a Barisan Nasional insider as saying that the 14th General Election will be held by the third week of April, which would mean the week ending on Saturday on April 21.

The 11th General Election in 2004 was held 19 days after dissolution of Parliament, while there was a 24-day period between dissolution of Parliament and polling for the 12th General Election in 2008 and 32-day period between dissolution of Parliament and polling for the 13th General Election in 2013.

If the 14th GE is held in the third week of April, Parliament is likely to be dissolved before the end of the present parliamentary meeting, which is scheduled to be on April 5.

(Media Statement in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 5th March 2018)