THE ongoing leadership tussle in the MCA is a landmark battle that will have a significant impact on the welfare of the Chinese community.
This is a contrary view to those who feel that the MCA is irrelevant and that the battle is of no consequence.
It is true that the MCA, which suffered defeats like other Barisan Nasional component parties in the 2008 general election, is seeking to remake itself to meet the demands of a wiser electorate and a changed political landscape.
It is also true that the majority of Chinese voters, as seen in recent by-elections, are supporting the Pakatan Rakyat opposition coalition and are even enamoured with the Islamist PAS whom they had once feared and avoided like the plague.
But these events alone do not make a political party like the MCA relevant or irrelevant.
After all, the party has a long history, a lot of accumulated experience, institutional memory and a track record of championing the educational, cultural and business interests of the community.
While the MCA might be down, what is happening in the party remains relevant to the Chinese community and until the day comes when such concerns are no longer considered important, issues affecting MCA will remain relevant.
Should that day arrive, MCA’s run in our society would come to an end.
However, realistically, that might not materialise in the forseeable future despite claims by the Pakatan Rakyat allies that they are multi-racial and able to effectively represent a multi-ethnic electorate.
The constant in-fighting between them belies their confidence.
They are as yet unable to work out a common agenda for a multi-ethnic society.
They cannot agree on fundamental issues because they are fundamentally divided over the pressing questions of the day — the criminalisation of common ills like alcohol consumption, the place of religion in a secular society, the apportioning of the country’s resources on the basis of need and not race and a host of other divisive issues.
If the Chinese have given up on the MCA as alleged by some, does it mean they are looking to the DAP, PKR or even PAS to defend their interests as a distinct community?
In the past, the MCA and the DAP had competed to represent the interest of the Chinese community.
While the MCA looked after the interest of the business and mercantile sections of the community and also Chinese education, the DAP was seen as fighting for the “small man” like hawkers, farmers and squatters.
While the MCA worked within the system, the DAP fought the system but nevertheless, there was a general acceptance that both were relevant and important and fighting for the same community.
The Chinese community also recognised their different roles and often gave the parliamentary seats to the DAP and the state seats to the MCA and Gerakan.
However, this general acceptance of their different roles has now become clouded with the MCA in retreat and the DAP ascendant.
The reason is probably an irrational euphoria among some sections of the community coupled with long-standing dislike as well as a rejection of the arrogance shown by Barisan. Does this rejection mean the key issues of the Chinese community — culture, language, business and welfare — have all become irrelevant?
While the MCA is caught in a leadership struggle, the DAP on the other hand is attempting to break free of its Chinese roots and go national.
It is grappling, rather unsuccessfully, with the special woes faced by the Indian community — poverty, being uprooted from the traditional areas, unemployment and crime.
At the same time, DAP is trying to win over the Malays and recently formed its first, all-Malay branch in the hope that more Malay participation would give it a true multi-ethnic flavour which it had always lacked.
The Malay-led PKR on the other hand appears to be focused on saving its supremo Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim from the second sodomy charge and struggling — and often failing — to keep the DAP and PAS from going at each other’s throats.
PAS itself is caught in a divisive struggle between the moderates who want to “go easy” on Islamic Syariah law to keep non-Muslim support and the powerful conservatives who want to Islamise society.
The chaotic, directionless situation is not what voters had bargained for when they exercised their rights during the 2008 general election.
They had wanted a strong opposition to check a runaway Barisan and generally did not want an opposition so emboldened that it pretends to be the government.
March 8 last year was a big storm and like after any storm, there is a period of instability, chaos and a search for stability and direction.
Like other political parties, the MCA, too, is going through this phase and the leadership battle between the independent-minded incumbent Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and his challenger Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek may well be a decisive turning point in the transformation of the MCA.
Therefore, it is as yet unwise to write off the MCA as irrelevant as some are doing on the basis of simplistic considerations.
Doing so is like throwing the baby out with the bath water.
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