MCA unlikely to win back Chinese community trust, say analysts

(TMT) – Political analysts are citing that MCA is unlikely to succeed with planned reforms to win back the Chinese community so long as Barisan Nasional (BN) Umno continues to succeed on communal politics.

“Umno’s dominance over government policies meant it was difficult for MCA to shake its seemingly passive role to the Malay nationalist party that has disenchanted its traditional support base,” said the analysts

Since reinforcing its position by winning 88 of the 133 federal seats the coalition managed to retain in Election 2013, Umno has also gained a stranglehold over country’s administration by controlling 17 of the 25 ministerial posts in the government.

“Reform in MCA is dependent on Umno,” Prof James Chin, a political analyst with Monash University, told The Malay Mail Online yesterday.

“The reform would only go as internal party reform and not government policies,” Chin said of MCA’s planned transformation.

In yesterday’s party polls, MCA delegates voted in a new line of leadership in an election that is meant to resuscitate the ailing party and restore its former glory as Malaysia’s main Chinese party.

Some 2,300 delegates elected Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai as president and former Youth chief Datuk Wee Ka Siong as his deputy, both of whom are among the only seven MCA candidates that survived an opposition onslaught in the May 5 polls that saw its remaining 27 federal candidates were annihilated.

His victory yesterday also closed another chapter on MCA’s chronic infighting, ending a months-long feud with outgoing president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek.

This issue was highlighted by political analyst Khoo Kay Peng, who said MCA must first rid itself of factional politics if it plans to reform, noting that the warring camps were more interested in positions and their privileges than achieving change.

But Khoo said even if MCA were genuine in its desire for reform, its success would be dependent on Umno discarding the communal politics that seen as a major cause of the Chinese rejection of BN and the MCA.

“All the BN component parties will have to go back to the BN platform… MCA has to tell Umno that it must go back to fighting for the interests of all and not just the Malays.

“If Umno goes back to its BN principle of inclusiveness, it can get the support of the Chinese back,” Khoo told The Malay Mail Online.