MCA – slapped, kicked, spat at – needs new paradigm
“As long as MCA is willing to be in the jaws of Umno, it is an impotent party incapable of any breakthrough impacting real progress, no matter how many hundreds of brainstorming sessions it intends to hold,” said a former MCA veteran leader from Selangor who has since defected to an opposition party.
By Stanley Koh, Free Malaysia Today
COMMENT Will MCA be brainstorming towards a paradigm shift that will give its leadership a direction that is more down to earth? Is it even prepared to re-define its traditional relationship with Umno to appease the Chinese community and thus give it at least a measure of hope for political survival? These questions come amid a growing awareness from within the party that the loss of Chinese political support is just one of the ingredients in the recipe for disaster.
We have heard calls for a cessation of the blame game so that the job of strengthening the party can proceed without distraction. Besides this, however, some veteran leaders who are still influential may be pushing for an internal leadership transformation to ensure that MCA function as a true partner of Umno instead of being its errant boy or, worse, its stooge.
But the obvious question is whether president Dr Chua Soi Lek, with his tainted past and political baggage, can pull this off.
The painful fact is that MCA is held in such low esteem that even a small fry from Umno can shout at its leaders, blaming them for the loss of Chinese votes during the recent Hulu Selangor by-election.
Ahmad Tajuddin Sulaiman of Paya Besar Umno division berated MCA for making “silly excuses” and said, “MCA should leave BN.”
This spoke volumes about MCA’s face value that even a near-nobody in Umno can spit on the party and get away with it.
It is because of this loss of dignity and integrity that the Chinese community is shunning the party. One cannot blame any Chinese Malaysian for being ashamed of being associated with a party seen as a wimp.
Former US President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), speaking of political parties in their twilight years, said:
“The old parties are husks, with no real soul within either, divided on artificial lines, boss-ridden and privilege-controlled, each a jumble of incongruous elements, and neither daring to speak out wisely and fearlessly on what should be said on the vital issues of the day.”
This, in essence, is the theme that on which MCA should meditate.
