The former MCA Negri Sembilan leader Lim Ching Fui was the only voice so far to protest against the MCA/UMNO/PAS unholy alliance, which has been forged in the Balakong by-election with PAS leaders speaking at MCA ceramahs for the first time in the 69-year MCA history.

Lim Ching Fui said he could not understand why MCA would accept PAS’ assistance to campaign in the Balakong by-election, warning that this will culminate in the party losing the one thing which it is left with – dignity.

It is debatable whether MCA has still got any dignity left, having been reduced to a 7/11 party in the 2013 General Election with seven MPs and eleven State Assemblymen, and further reduced to ½ party in the 2018 general election, with one MP and two State Assemblymen.

There was a time when the MCA had four Ministers, 31 MPs and 76 State Assembly seats.

Instead of learning from its mistakes to carry out root-and-branch reforms, by asking why it had fallen so low after bestriding the Malaysian political stage like a giant for six decades of the nation’s history that it is now reduced to a mosquito party even worse off than the MIC, the MCA leadership has sunk lower by forming the MCA/UMNO/PAS unholy alliance in the Balakong by-election which dare not condemn the 1MDB corruption and money-laundering scandal but only to secure the deposit of the MCA candidate in the Balakong by-election.

Is this what the MCA, which boasts of having more than a million members, been reduced to?

The overwhelming majority of MCA members have “abandoned darkness and joined the light”, and although their names are on the MCA membership register, they cast their vote solidly for DAP and Pakatan Harapan for truth, justice and a New Malaysia..

But there is a very small minority who have remained in MCA, hoping that it is possible for MCA to learn from its mistakes and betrayals and carry out root-and-branch reforms.

Is the MCA candidate, Tan Chee Teong one of them? Does he belong to the honest politicians who value integrity and public service, or does he belong to the band of unscrupulous politicians who are more interested in political advancement for self, regardless of the betrayal of public interests and political principles?

I advise Tan Chee Teong to “rein in the horse at the edge of a cliff” (临崖勒马) and the Chinese saying “one false step brings eternal regret and looking back your whole life has passed away” (一失足成千古恨 回头已是百年身).

If he is a budding politician of ideals with a passion for truth and justice, I call on him to announce his last-minute withdrawal as the MCA candidate for the Balakong by-election to protest against the shame, indignity and irresponsibility of the MCA/UMNO/PAS unholy alliance.

It is not too late for Tan to make this grand political gesture which will resonate down the generations. Although the by-election campaign ends in a few hours, all Tan needs to do is to send publicity trucks all over the constituency tomorrow to announce his withdrawal as a MCA candidate on a matter of principle to protest against the MCA/UMNO/PAS unholy alliance.

Or had Tan Chee Teong agreed with and been one of the principal proponents of the MCA/UMNO/PAS unholy alliance all along?

[Speech by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang at the DAP Balakong by-election ceramah at Sungai Long on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018 at 9.30 pm]