‘What is important is the BN spirit of always safeguarding the interests of the various races.’
Let’s not belabour the well-known fact that there is no real power-sharing in BN between Umno and the rest of the component parties but why is MCA actively assisting Umno in furthering its racist agenda?
Umno is a party which creates and exploits racial tension to maintain its hold on power. It flogs the concept of Malay supremacy which has no place in modern society in order to exploit Malay sentiment for its own selfish purpose while the toll of racial disunity on the nation is secondary.
I’m not blaming MCA, MIC, Gerakan and other component parties for what Umno is but the question is why do they have to play along?
Their willingness to participate in the ugly racial politics of Umno has resulted in a slew of racist polices which has marginalised the non-Malays to the detriment of the nation as a whole.
As a Chinese Malaysian, I struggle to find any relevance for the existence of MCA other than to placate the Chinese community to accept the glaring social inequities for the sake of some cosmetic positions in government.
In parliament, MCA and other component party MPs are unable to speak up even when racist slurs are flung in their faces by Umno MPs and they even have to vote for any bill which sidelines the very communities which they claim to represent.
Currently we have the spectacle of MCA elections with party members jostling for positions in a party which is all but powerless and pointless in the arena of national politics. For what purpose except to further their own personal interests?
MCA cannot change the deep-rooted racial politics from within BN even if it waits for another 50 years. It must do some soul-searching and decide on what role it wants to play in national politics.
If MCA wants to champion social issues and assist in nation-building it should withdraw from this unequal alliance with Umno and join the multi-racial politics of Pakatan Rakyat.
If MCA is content to plod along to the tired beat of the old political dance, then its survival is bleak. Since the 12th general elections, a political awakening has spread throughout the minority communities like a new dawn breaking above the horizon.
Chinese and Indians want to be equal partners in the economic and social development of Malaysia and are no longer willing to be misrepresented by parties content to be part of the beggar politics of BN.
If the party will not budge from its comfort zone, then I urge all right-thinking and patriotic MCA leaders and MPs to follow the footsteps of MCA’ ex-deputy Wanita chief Tan Yee Kew and switch to Pakatan Rakyat.
The eminent biologist Charles Darwin said that it is not the strongest or most intelligent organism which survives but the one most adaptable to change.
I see MCA and its companion MIC as a pathetic political dinosaurs staring at their own irrelevancy in the face but unable to adapt to the new political environment to save themselves.
Like the dinosaurs of old, they will soon become extinct as Malaysians welcome a new era of multi-racial politics that will rise up like the sun.
malaysian chinese
via email
18/09/08
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