MP SPEAKS | The most important questions for all MCA leaders are not whether the party is leaving BN, but whether it dares to denounce Najib Abdul Razak and the 1MDB scandal for the infamy of Malaysia becoming a global kleptocracy, and vow to support Pakatan Harapan to transform Malaysia into a model democracy.
MCA must thank its former president Dr Chua Soi Lek for crystallising some of the issues which MCA must confront if it is to survive after being reduced from a 7/11 into a 1/2 political party from the 2013 to the 2018 general elections – that is, a party with seven MPs and 11 assemblypersons to a party with one MP and two assemblypersons!
At its height, MCA had 30 MPs and four federal ministers, but in the 2018 general election, it secured only 639,165 votes (or the support, at most, of 200,000 Chinese voters although it boasts of a membership of more than a million).
In his publicity build-up for the launching of his autobiography today, Chua (photo) asked “When dad gives you money, do you ask if he stole it?” as his response to questions as to why MCA had agreed to receive money from 1MDB from Najib for its GE13 campaign.
Chua’s answer helped to highlight three issues confronting MCA today.
Firstly, MCA’s relationship with Umno is likened to a father-and-son relationship.
When did this happen? Throughout its history, MCA has always been presented as co-equal with Umno and MIC to achieve independence for the country.
The founder and early MCA presidents, in particular Tan Cheng Lock, Tan Siew Sin, and even Lee San Choon, would never have agreed to Umno-MCA relationship to be likened to a father-son relationship.
It is indeed sad and tragic that by 2013, some 60 years after the founding of MCA, its presidents have already come to accept the Umno-MCA relationship as that of father-and-son.
Secondly, Najib (photo) had never denied that RM470 million from his personal banking account had been given to BN parties in the 2013 general election.
Out of this sum, RM417 million was given to Umno, RM16.5 million to MCA, RM20 million to MIC, RM3.5 million to SUPP and RM300,000 to Gerakan. Why is there such a vast difference between RM417 million to Umno and RM16.5 million to MCA?
Read more: Najib's account - political beneficiaries who 'got a cut' revealed
Even more interestingly, why was MIC given RM20 million while MCA got only RM16.5 million, when the latter had always boasted that it is the second most important party in BN?.
Thirdly, do MCA leaders agree that these payments were serious misappropriation of public funds and abuses of power, as the entire amount of RM470 million allegedly belonged to 1MDB and the government.
It should set the example of returning the RM16.4 million of 1MDB funds to the public coffers, and demanding that Umno, MIC, Gerakan, SUPP and other recipients do the same.
MCA is holding its party elections on Nov 4.
Will all the contestants in the MCA party elections dare make the denunciation of Najib and the 1MDB scandal as well as vowing to support Pakatan to transform Malaysia as a cardinal platform in their MCA election pledges?
LIM KIT SIANG is the MP for Iskandar Puteri
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
