Desperate for Malay votes, Soi Lek plays Chinese vs Chinese race card

Although the MCA has tried to play a big brother's role to the Chinese in Sarawak, the community is not so concerned about how the party is doing. In fact, they rate the MCA as being as "hopeless as the SUPP" and that its leaders were merely fighting for their own selfish interests. Many tended to lump the two Chinese dominated parties together in one breath.

However, what caught their attention recently was the speculation in the Chinese media and cyberspace that several MCA bigwigs had agreed it was 'smart' strategy to dump a flailing Prime Minister Najib Razak and throw their support behind Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

MCA president, Chua Soi Lek's recent accusations that DAP wanted to turn Malaysia into a 'Little China' also raised eyebrows amongst the Chinese in Sarawak, one of the largest Sino-communities in the country.

Chua's comments did not go down well, with the Chinese taking offence that he would play the race card against his own community. They questioned if it was the DAP fighting Chinese with Chinese as Chua claimed or if Chua's real motive was to make himself popular with the Malays, on whom his party is now dependent for political survival.

PKR assemblyman for Batu Lintang See Chee How believes that Chua will say anything to keep his party afloat. Such a desire to stay and be a leader at the expense of the country's multi-racial harmony showed Chua to be a leader without a conscience, said See.

"This sort of leader should be booted out long ago," See told Malaysia Chronicle. "He wants to continue being a leader and will say whatever it is necessary to win votes from the Malays. That is just how low he can stoop.”

Muhyiddin and the last straw

See also predicted that the MCA grassroots would not be happy if the party leadership embraced Muhyiddin, although they have also lost faith in Najib and his "hollow" 1Malaysia slogan.

Like many Malaysians, See believes there is an internal UMNO plot spearheaded by ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad to replace the ineffectual Najib with Muhyiddin.

To Voon Shiak Ni, the vice chairman of the PKR women's wing, the MCA has hit the lowest of its political ebb. However, she too doubts that MCA members would welcome the DPM, although its top leaders might try to curry favour with him.

“I think they might also fear Muhyiddin’s ‘Malay first, Malaysian second’ statement. Chinese are suspicious of racist leaders as they would not bring unity to all the races and Malaysia is made up of so many ethnic group,” Voon told Malaysia Chronicle.

She added that Chua is not a good leader with his often controversial statements, and believes that the 'Little China' remark will be the last straw for the Chinese community, which is already upset with his brash ways.

“That is racist in nature and being a Chinese leader, he should know better than to provoke the already fragile situation by drawing a bigger wedge between the Malays and the Chinese.

Appealing to the Malays now, no longer the Chinese

Lim JM, an accountant who did not wish to have his full name revealed, said Chua was irrelevant and whatever the MCA president had to say was "meaningless", and just like the "excuses" the SUPP offered.

“Even if there is no DAP candidate in my constituency, I will vote for PAS even. To me, I look at DAP, PAS and PKR as a family. Anyway, who cares what Chua said nowadays? He has lost his credibility within his own members, what more outsiders,” Lim told Malaysia Chronicle.

Terence Chin is of the opinion that the younger generation does not look at a party as being Chinese, Malay, Dayak, Indian or any other race. “New voters like us tend to look at either Pakatan Rakyat or BN. Chua is just another of those politician who wants to stay in power. So to stay in power, you echo what your big brother UMNO ssays, right or wrong. That is how I look at MCA now, same class as the SUPP.”

In the coming general election, Sarawakians foresee the same fate for MCA as the SUPP - either total annihilation or retaining just a couple of seats. Fair or not, the people’s confidence in MCA is sliding and Chua knows it. Instead of appealing to the Chinese in the peninsula, he is now appealing to the Malays.

But will the Malays take pity on him or will they see him for what he has been accused of being by his own community - a treacherous personality willing to fan racial fires just to stay in power. - Malaysia Chronicle