MCA must thank its former MCA President, Datuk Chua Soi Lek for crystallising some of the issues which MCA must confront if it is to survive after being reduced from a 7/11 into a ½ political party from the 2013 to the 2018 General Election, i.e. a party with seven MPs and 11 State Assemblymen to a party with one MP and two Assemblymen!
At its height, MCA had 30 MPs and four federal Ministers, but in the 2018 general election, it secured only 639,165 votes (or the support at most 200,000 Chinese voters although it boasts of a membership of more than a million members).
In his publicity build-up for the launching of his autobiography today, Chua asked “When dad gives you money, do you ask if he stole it?” as his response to questions as why MCA had agreed to receive money from 1MDB from former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, for the 13th General Election campaign.
Chua’s answer helped to highlight three issues confronting MCA today.
Firstly, MCA’s relationship with UMNO likened to a father-and-son relationship.
When did this happen, as in MCA history, MCA had always been presented as co-equal with UMNO and MIC to achieve independence for the country.
The founder and early MCA Presidents, in particular Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin, and even Datuk Lee San Choon would never have agreed to UMNO-MCA relationship to be likened to a father-son relationship.
It is indeed sad and tragic that by 2013, some 60 years after the founding of MCA, MCA Presidents have already come to accept the UMNO-MCA relationship as that of father-and-son.
Secondly, former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had never denied that RM470 million from his personal banking account had been given to BN parties in the 2013 general election.
Out of this sum, kRM417 million was given to UMNO, RM16.5 million given to MCA, RM20 million to MIC, RM3.5 million to SUPP and RM300,000 to Gerakan.
Why is there such a vast difference between RM417 million to UMNO and RM16.5 million to MCA.
Even more interesting, why was MIC given RM20 million while MCA got only RM16.5 million, when MCA had always boasted that it is the second most important party in Barisan National.
Thirdly, whether MCA leaders agree that these payments were serious misappropriation of public funds and abuses of power as the entire amount of RM470 million belonged to 1MDB and the government, and that MCA should set the example of returning the RM16.4 million 1MDB funds to public coffers, demanding UMNO, MIC, Gerakan, SUPP and other receipients of the RM470 million 1MDB funds to the public exchequer?
MCA is holding its party elections two Sunday from today on Nov. 4.
However, all the MCA leaders have missed the most important questions which are not whether MCA is leaving BN but whether MCA dare to denounce Najib and the 1MDB scandal for the infamy of Malaysia becoming a global kleptocracy and vow support to Pakatan Harapan government to transform Malaysia from global kleptocracy to a model democracy?
Will all the contestants in the MCA party elections on Nov. 4 dare to make the denunciation of Najib and the 1MDB scandal as well as to vow support to Pakatan Harapan to transform Malaysia from a global kleptocracy to a model democracy as a cardinal platform in their MCA election pledges?
(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Sunday, 21st October 2018)