MCA crisis; where would it take our nation?
By Sim Kwang Yang
This is the season for internal warfare within MCA as both sides in this Ong-Chua tussle are now openly engaged in very ugly exchange of words in the media. It looks now that the chance of any mediation to resolve the party crisis is razor thin.
Many Chinese citizens have expressed their loss of interest in following this latest round of power struggle in the MCA. They say that, whichever side emerges victorious in the end, the MCA will just be its old self, as the junior partner of BN, that gives credibility to UMNO’s myth of the Social Contract and power sharing among the races.
This contemptuous lack of interest in the ongoing MCA crisis is the trend of the Chinese people to-day that regard the party as having alienated the Chinese community. It is a sharp contrast to the MCA image at one time that the MCA represented the Chinese, and the Chinese could find salvation in multiracial Malaysia only through the MCA.
But, say what you like, MCA is still one of the oldest political parties in Malaysia, and the second largest component party in the ruling Barisan Nasional. The party boasted of having a million members at one time. They still have a national party structure, and have considerable financial and political clout.
The party may have lost a great deal of electoral territory to the Pakatan Rakyat in the March 8 general election last year. But the MCA ship is far from being completely wrecked yet. As an old Chinese saying goes, you can salvage four kati of iron nails from a wrecked ship!
Therefore, we should follow closely the unfolding drama in this current MCA crisis and see it not just as a typical power struggle between two over-ambitious leaders, but as a reflection of the future development of national politics in Malaysia.
