10 ways MCA has failed Malaysians

In an open letter, Tota says MCA leaders are more interested in position-sharing than power-sharing.

For more than 50 years, many Chinese Malaysians were duped into blindly giving their vote to the MCA. This support enabled the Alliance/BN to control Parliament with a two-thirds majority and successfully undermine democracy.

The MCA has always claimed to be the protector and saviour of the Chinese. Let us look at MCA’s record. If MCA leaders and supporters suffer from amnesia, this ought to refresh their memories.

1. The MCA leadership was implicated in a scandal involving 600,000 Chinese Malaysian depositors who placed hundreds of millions of ringgit of savings in 24 deposit-taking cooperatives. Many of the depositors were left in a lurch when the scheme collapsed.

2. The MCA’s Multi-Purpose Society in which many Chinese invested their money was a total failure, and then MCA president Tan Koon Swan went to prison for criminal breach of trust.

3. The MCA joined Umno to deny participatory democracy by cancelling local council elections. Many town and city council dwellers are Chinese Malaysians and the MCA feared that control of town and city councils would fall into the hands of the Opposition, especially DAP. It was despicable that MCA put self-interest above national interest and democracy. .

5. The MCA supported Umno when the provision of a 1:2 rural-to-urban weighting in constituency boundary changes was amended in 1973, thus leading to an even more lop-sided electoral system with malapportionment of voters. Some urban parliamentary constituencies have over 130,000 voters while rural constituencies have 30,000 voters. This makes the principle of one person, one vote a joke. With such serious gerrymanderng, BN is able to win 60% of the parliamentary seats while getting less than 50% of the popular vote.

6. With the MCA’s connivance and collusion, many of the sacrosanct provisions in the Constitution have been mutilated. Civil rights and liberties were destroyed when oppressive and repressive laws such as the Internal Security Act, the Official Secrets Act, the Sedition Act, the Printing Presses and Publications Act and the Universities and University Colleges Act were passed.

Until recently the deputy minister of education has been from the MCA, and yet the Ministry of Education was permitted to become the most racist in the country. There are 25-odd public universities; all vice-chancellors are Malays. There are four deputy vice-chancellors in each university; usually just one is non-Malay. Most of the deans in the universities are Malays. All 13 directors of education and deputies are Malays. If, as the MCA claims, there is power-sharing, such a situation would not arise.

MCA leaders should get it into their heads that there is no power-sharing with Umno. It is merely position sharing. If there is power-sharing, what was the necessity for the MCA, the MIC and Gerakan to send a memorandum to Abdullah Badawi. When Umno took offence, the senders of the memorandum retracted the memorandum. I challenge the MCA to put the memorandum, which is not under the Official Secrets Act, in the public domain and let people judge the legitimacy of their demands.

7. Umno has successfully emasculated the MCA and made its leaders political eunuchs. Umno is no respecter of the Constitution, rule of law and agreements. Our Merdeka Constitution, which in fact is the social contract, has been shredded. Look how Umno-dominated BN, supported by the MCA, has eroded the Cobbold Commission’s 20-point Sabah Agreement and the 18-point Sarawak Agreement.

8. The MCA is now the appointed critic of the DAP. The MCA frequently criticised the DAP for working with Pas in the Pakatan-led Selangor government, thereby supporting hudud, it claimed. But it was Umno which allowed – behind the MCA’s back – a Pas motion on the hudud agenda to move up the parliamentary order paper.

9. The MCA president called the DAP “the most unprincipled politcal party in the world”. How principled is the MCA? After the thrashing they got at the 1969 general election, Tan Siew Sin and his team withdrew from the government – only to crawl back because the pay and perks were too good to forego. Very principled indeed!

10. The MCA repeated its shameful performance after its thrashing in the 2008 election – leaving the government temporarily and shamelessly crawling back.

I urge Chinese Malaysians to see the MCA for what it really is – imbecile, boot lickers of Umno – not their protecter.

Show Umno that we are a dignified people and bribery will not win our votes.

Tota is the pseudonym of an occasional contributor to our Thinking Allowed section.

The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.

AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama

1. Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
2. Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
3. Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
4. Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
5. Lawan rasuah dan kronisme

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