'What does MCA stand for? Do you subscribe to the doctrine of good governance? Or are you paying lip-service to it?'

Soi Lek: Chinese balancing act has gone awry

Cala: MCA chief Dr Chua Soi Lek, despite being well-educated, erred in the assumptions he made. He appeared to assume that it was MCA's ‘birth right' to have access to the support of the Chinese Malaysian community.

He was thinking illogically because he assumed that only MCA was capable of co- coordinating the Chinese for representation in the government. This kind of reasoning was obtuse.

In the utopian world of Dr Chua, he could of course dream that way. In the real world however, the ‘conscience' of the Chinese somehow was telling the community into accepting just any party that would deliver good governance. As the saying goes, never mind whether it is a white cat or black cat.

Chua was right in his guessing that the community had abandoned it (MCA could not muscle more than 20 percent support from the Chinese). But he should also ask himself who had abandoned the community? On a more general note, is the corrupted regime (a point he was not disputing) deserving of people's re-endorsement in the 13th GE?

What does MCA stand for? Do you subscribe to the doctrine of good governance? Or are you paying lip-service to it, the way your big brother, PM Najib Razak, had pronounced while on a 'holiday trip' in Kazakhstan?

But the sad story is the current ideology of Umno-BN is one of moral decadence. In that circumstance, only like-minded institutions (judiciary, MACC, police, AG's Chambers, and government pathologists) can survive under its ‘stringent environment'. The incentive structure under that regime is predictable.

Everyone then seeks for personal glory and wealth, a far cry from the spirit of "the government of the people, by the people, and for the people".

Me Malaysian: What balancing act? MCA has failed the Chinese community miserably and we are fed up. Even in the government, MCA has been happy with the token scraps Umno has given, and they expect us to be grateful?

All BN politicians are the only grateful ones. After all, they have enriched themselves. So, Soi Lek, you still don't understand what we are telling you. What a pity.

YF: Balancing act? Excuse me, Chua, your political mindset is 20 years behind time. Today, it is not about balancing act but justice, fairness and freedom of speech.

The rakyat is no longer the same shallow minded and ignorant pakcik, makcik, apek, amoi, tambi , etc, of the past. We're a new generation of voters who have seen the continuous injustices and blatant corruption in this country and it's time to put it to an end.

Anonymous: Follow CSL's (Chua Soi Lek) train of thoughts in this interview with Malaysiakini , you will realise he is talking about MCA this, MCA that. That means MCA 1st, Chinese 2nd.

He is so out of sync with the aspirations of Chinese Malaysians. CSL, talk about things Chinese 1st, then MCA may become relevant. Without the Chinese, there is no MCA. We, the Chinese, who are hurting, don't care which platform we are using so long as our aspirations are acknowledged and met in a fair manner.

Tkc: If the playing field is level and transparent, the Chinese community - being resilient and industrious - do not really need any representation in government in order to survive.

The fact that CSL continues to talk about representation in government - to scare the Chinese community into voting for MCA - proves that the cabinet meetings are far from being level and transparent and are ‘master-slave' in nature.

Given this scenario, what has the Chinese community got to lose by voting for change?

Quigonbond: CSL remains stuck in the past. The Chinese in Malaysia has gone global. They think of themselves as global citizens/Malaysian citizens first, and race second. All they want is for rules to be applied uniformly, so that they know what are the cost of investing their time, effort and sometimes money in doing something.

They have an increasing intolerance for incompetence, racism, bigotry, corruption and abuse of power. The Chinese in Malaysia no longer need an overlord to take care of ‘Chinese interest' because there truly isn't one. The only ‘Chinese interest' that can be tangibly spoken of is financial interests of business tycoons who would have found their own cables through Umno politicians.

And these Chinese tycoons are not protecting the rest of the Chinese community so the middle-class and the poor Chinese are not gaining from them anyway. If MCA continues to deny this new reality, they will remain irrelevant.

Pants on Fire: We gave you 50 years and you have messed things up. Now after Pakatan Rakyat has been in power in a number of states for three years, you claim it hasn't done anything.

We will give Pakatan 10 years to proof if they can do it better. We have already being seen some areas of improvement. Penang having a deficit budget? Look at the federal budget, for God's sake.

Phra Ong Chao: Chua speaks as if it is MCA/BN's eternal and divine right to be the government and DAP/Pakatan is condemned to be the opposition forever. To him, DAP/Pakatan can only become either a strong or weak opposition.

Who gave him the right to declare that the Chinese community is merely balancing between a strong DAP/Pakatan opposition and the MCA/BN governing party?

He misses the point altogether that many Chinese want the MCA/BN out of power and not voting for the opposition merely to have a strong opposition. For this, he and his party and coalition shall pay in the next general elections.

Joker: CSL, you are wrong to think that the Chinese balancing act has gone awry. It only looks that way because the BN government itself has gone awry. The Chinese is still doing a balancing act but because BN has gone so far right to accommodate extreme right-wing groups such as Perkasa/Gaps/Pembela, the Chinese have to go extreme left and vote for Pakatan.

For all intents and purposes, BN as a government does not exist anymore - there is only Umno.

Ethnicmalaysian: "Deep down, the Chinese community still wants to ensure that they are represented in BN government," said Chua.

Soi Lek, if you go even deeper down you will find that the community has totally, unequivocally and undeniably do not want, or care, if they are represented in the Umno government.

And if you go even deeper some more, you will find that MCA is in total and utter denial of its impending demise, and the Chinese community is perfectly and readily comfortable with that fact.

You are saying that Umno will not take care of the non-Malay interests if MCA/MIC are not in government? Are you then implying that Umno is racist? OMG, now that's a revelation.

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .

Related reports

Soi Lek's faith in 1M'sia to oust Perkasa 'nuisance'

Ibrahim Ali: Soi Lek jealous of me

MCA out of sync with Chinese aspirations

Soi Lek, Umno has 'castrated' MCA leaders