MCA claims Umno leaders don’t preach Malay supremacy

MCA claims Umno leaders don’t preach Malay supremacy

Balls got caught in the snare !!

Chua Soi Lek

KUALA LUMPUR (Malaysian Insider) - With Umno now openly snubbing Perkasa, MCA appears to have made amends with its Barisan Nasional (BN) ally, claiming that not one of the Malay party’s leaders had ever preached the superiority of the country’s dominant race.

MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek put aside his recent disagreement with Umno leaders by reaffirming today his loyalty to the alliance with the country’s largest Malay party.

“In my association or the MCA’s association with Umno, I have never heard of any Umno leader who says that the Malays are more superior than the non-Malays. No,” he firmly said in a press conference after chairing a meeting with several Chinese associations at Wisma MCA here this afternoon.

Dr Chua’s statement was in response to Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s remarks during a recent interview with the New York Times on state of Malaysia’s race relations, which he described as “a most unhappy situation”.

“We respect the view of Lee Kuan Yew. He is entitled to say... he is a very senior statesman,” he said.

But Dr Chua agreed that Malaysia’s race relations were less than ideal and stressed that this was largely becaue of the intense competition between the political parties post-Elections 2008.

“There is intense competition between all the political parties in order to gain support.... and in a multi-racial country like Malaysia, race would be a very easy issue to be used for support,” he said.

Dr Chua however disagreed with the notion that this was caused by constant harping on the superiority of the Malay race by Malay leaders.

“I don’t think it is fair to say Malay leaders always harp on the fact that the Malay race is superior. I don’t think so.

“I think they are only the minorities of the minorities who harp that the Malays are superior. This is the tactic of the opposition to make Umno look bad,” he claimed.

Dr Chua claimed that in its 53-year rule, the BN had proven its worth in managing the complexity of race relationships.

“What we do here is that because the Malays are Bumiputeras and economically, they are not on par with the other non-Malays and they continue to require affirmative action... and that is the reason why we say affirmative action should be based on needs and merits.

“If it is based on needs and merits, then if the Malays are poor either economically or are academically backward, then they can still continue to receive help from the government.... because they are poor,” he stressed.

Dr Chua also indirectly disagreed with former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s apparent continuing defence of Perkasa, and said that the views of the country’s current Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak should take precedence above everyone else’s.

“I think in a democratic country, people are entitled to their own opinion. In no country that practices democracy, 100 per cent of their people talk in the same tune.

“Dr Mahathir is also an elder statesmen... we respect his view, he is entitled to his views (but) I could hold on more to the views of the current Prime Minister. I would say it has greater relevance to us because he is the number one in the country,” he said.

The Malaysian Insider understands that the Prime Minister had instructed his leaders to distance themselves from Perkasa, fearing that any association with the controversial Malay rights group would only cause BN to lose more support.

Dr Mahathir, who is Perkasa’s patron, however stepped in to warn Umno against snubbing Perkasa, claiming it would only cause them bigger electoral losses in the next election.

The newly formed non-governmental organisation has been making waves in the country’s political landscape and has even succeeded in pitting Umno and MCA against one another.

In Dr Chua’s recent war with Umno leaders, Perkasa played a role in fanning the fires when he slammed the Chinese-based party for fighting to abolish the 30 per cent Bumiputera equity target.

In response, top Umno leaders like its deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and vice-president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein stepped in to remind MCA not to forget the BN’s struggles when fighting for the rights of the Chinese community.

MCA has also been the only BN party so far to strongly oppose Perkasa’s oftentimes extreme views.

When Umno began disassociating itself from the group, MCA jumped in quickly to laud the move.

Dr Chua also voiced hope today that despite the current spate of racially-charged political tiffs, the country would one day improve on race relations under the BN.

“I do not think we are a perfect government. We have our defects and deficiencies... this is to be expected because if you are in power for 53 years and you have no problems, then something must be wrong somewhere,” he said.

He pointed out that under a mere two and a half years in government, the Pakatan Rakyat coalition has already shown its weaknesses.

“If you look at Penang... I do not think they have done a good job. They have street protests by certain ethnic groups against the state government.

“In the same way, if you look at Selangor, you have the issue of the support letters affecting one particular race and one particular party,” he said.