‘Toughest challenge in 60 years’
(The Star) – “Without Chinese support, MCA will no longer be on an equal footing with Umno”.
The Chinese community today is facing its toughest challenge in 60 years, says MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.
The country’s secular system, which the community prided itself on, was at risk of being destroyed, he said.
He cautioned that the community’s vulnerable political representation might lead to disastrous results.
The MCA won only seven parliamentary and 11 state seats in the 2013 general election.
Liow said the Chinese community had reached a crucial juncture where it had no choice, but to band together in an unprecedented show of unity to determine its destiny.
“I want to make the strongest call to all Chinese out there to have a complete mindset reform,” he said in his speech at the MCA 68th anniversary celebration here yesterday with the theme “Stronger Together”.
His reminder to party members and the community was: “We cannot survive on pity from others and this is a political reality we must accept.
“MCA must take the lead by uniting from within and with the Chinese in order to be a force to be reckoned with.”
Liow said mainstream political strength was crucial to charting the community’s future.
“Today, a stronger DAP came at the expense of Chinese representation in mainstream politics while national politics is also becoming more extreme,” he pointed out.
Although MCA has weathered adversity and made sacrifices in the last 60 years, Liow said the party would continue to soldier on and never give up on its struggles.
“We are resolute in our fight for the political rights of the Chinese. We will defend all we have as enshrined in the Federal Constitution,” he said.
The Chinese, said Liow, must accept the political reality and understand that DAP could never be the best choice for them.
“Knowing what the Chinese want is one thing, but the question is on delivery,” he added.
He noted that DAP won in the last two general elections by using political gimmicks to create a perceived Chinese unity.
It led to a dilution of Chinese representation in the Government and an expanded power base for PAS, which had allowed the Islamist party to promote its hudud agenda.
In 2013, DAP won 38 parliamentary and 95 state seats. The party and PAS “divorced” in 2015, bringing an end to the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.
Liow said as the second largest component party in Barisan Nasional, MCA’s political power was derived from Chinese support.
“Without Chinese support, MCA will no longer be on an equal footing with Umno.
“Likewise, without the defence of MCA, the Chinese community will face all kinds of difficulties.”
