ACID TEST for MCA & Umno: Can BN survive its self-created 'hudud' & May 13 fiascoes

Lately, MCA accused PAS Central Committee Member Nizar Jamaluddin of treason for tweeting about the Malaysian flag. Nizar had referred to the flag as jalur malang or a disaster in remarks connected to the Merdeka celebrations that the federal opposition have accused Prime Minister Najib Razak's BN government of hijacking and using to broadcast their own election propaganda.

Obviously, Nizar being the former Perak chief minister and still immensely popular is a prime target for MCA and its BN cohort UMNO to try and knock down at every opportunity. Especially when the 13th general election or GE-13 may take place as early as next month!

Of Level 4 battle mode & Low IQ

Like UMNO, MCA is now in 'Level 4' battle mode. It will go into full battle gear to smash and smear the Pakatan Rakyat with any ammunition that it can get its hands on.

At a recent tactical task force meeting amongst its leaders; BN appears to have worked out an attack plan to the minutest detail: Today, it’s my turn, tomorrow, it’s yours, and the day after it will be someone else's turn to use every and all available resources to discredit and destroy the Opposition.

While MCA is attacking from the southern frontier, Gerakan will shoot from the North, and ally KITA party from the East. Maybe, UMNO - the field marshall - can get the Sumatrans to attack from the West if it is not already do so.

Whether there are valid issues or not, the strategy is to keep up the attacks on a regular basis. Even if the BN as a whole come off looking like harebrained nincompoops, there should not be any let up with the daily barrage. Keep loading the guns and fire blindly. Some bullets are bound to hit the target sooner or later. Some fence sitters would fall, that is the UMNO-BN's reasoning.

But low IQ might prove to be the BN's Waterloo - fence sitters might indeed fall BUT they may fall to the Pakatan side of the garden, disgusted and outraged by the senseless gunfire!

UMNO beating PAS to the hudud finishing line

It has reached such a sorry state that the BN assault has started to volley back on its own people. While MCA is busy attacking the DAP on the Hudud issue, Johor UMNO suddenly announced that it would be the first state to implement the archaic Islamic law in this country. Taken aback, a visibly shocked MCA condemned the move, and threatened to abandon the BN coalition.

But that was all. Very quickly, MCA president Chua Soi Lek has closed its eyes to the Johor incident. The whole of MCA now seems to be pretending that Johor Umno never said such a thing, and they have begun attacking Pas again for wanting to implement hudud and an Islamic state.

Obviously, such hypocrisy from MCA and Umno is not new.Whenever they hit trouble, they will take turns to close their eyes on each other's foible but continue to attack others for the same issues. This is why both parties have lost tremendous credibility voter support.

As always, UMNO too closed an eye to the sudden MCA outburst, and started to pick at Pas for being gutless and toeing the secular DAP's line. If it was sincere about hudud, when didn't Johor fire back at MCA for rejecting hudud.

Best of all, the UMNO-controlled Utusan newspaper have begun a campaign that calls on all Malays not to vote for DAP as the party did not support hudud. It is a sin to vote for DAP because DAP does not support an Islamic state, screeches Utusan.

Why is MCA on this or is it Chua Soi Lek's turn to pretend not to hear. For sure, Malaysian Chinese would want to know how the MCA will now respond to an incorrigible UMNO bent on implementing hudud?

Nagging away like an old lady

MCA is really starting to sound more like an old wife nagging and creating issues out of thin air. Barking incessantly and being a busy body on people’s private affairs while harping on the same old stories without any creativeness or worry that it is losing more and more credibility by the day.

The problem is that unlike MCA, DAP has a state to govern. Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, the DAP sec-gen, is doing a fine job in Penang, while bored MCA members are playing with marbles in their pockets in their luxurious, air-conditioned offices. DAP doesn’t even have the time to answer or counter every little issue thrown at them.

Many of these so-called issues are mere petty grouses, comparing unfavorably with the Pakatan's accusations of rampant corruption and cronyism that undeniably is happening all around us. MCA is pecking like a headless chicken on pointless matters like 'who sent Ng Yen Yen a Hell's banknote', Jessie Ooi's tow trucks complaint and throwing tantrums that DAP wants to replace the MCA in BN.

It has caused the Penang Chief Minister to reply that DAP’s primary concern is to replace BN - AS A WHOLE - with the Pakatan Rakyat. DAP, says Guan Eng, has bigger fishes to fry than to take over MCA’s unflattering role in the BN coalition. Now, that's a smack down for Soi Lek!

Hudud the hottest Non-Issue

While Hudud is the hottest issue being debated in the country today, every well read Malaysian knows that it is a non-issue as it would be a near impossibility to implement these laws without a two-third consensus from Parliament. Don’t tell me that MCA leaders are still in the dark about this simple fact?

Everyone has put the Hudud controversy behind them and are now focusing on the important issues at hand, going about their daily lives in productive ways. But MCA still keeps harping onto wring every last bit of juice from it.

Even the fact that Pakatan Rakyat leaders - tired of the constant attacks - have announced to the public that they would not implement hudud should they win the federal government is not enough for the MCA.

“We have solved this issue last year, and we are sticking to the common policy included in the Buku Jingga,” PAS secretary-general Mustafa Ali said at a recent press conference. 

So what is MCA waiting for? Isn’t that a cause for celebration? Why aren't they jumping for joy and claiming victory that it was due to them that the great Pakatan have 'finally' cleared the air and reiterated their long-held stand of 'no hudud'. But that would leave the MCA with one less bone to chew on, would it it?

So like the misery guts it has often been called by its critics, MCA is now pretending it didn't hear the Pakatan's past and latest statements on hudud. Is it any wonder that voters get tired of them?

Put right the perception of violent Chinese to the Malays

A tip for Soi Lek and his deputy Liow Tiong Lai. If they really want to revive respect for the MCA, they should train their sights on UMNO and give Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is the UMNO president, a earful for the wrongful depiction of the Chinese in general and DAP's Lim Kit Siang in particular of having started the May 13, 1969 racial riots in the BN-financed movie Tanda Putera.

What? They would never dare! How to win back voter respect then! So this is MCA now. At a cross-road it cannot traverse because it lacks the moral integrity and courage to do so. 

There are so many pressing issues that warrant the MCA’s attention as the so-called undisputed champion of the Chinese community in this country. Why are issues like the deteriorating 'inalienable' rights of the Chinese here so easily and conveniently overlooked that even former premier Mahathir Mohamad dares to publicly state that even the illegal migrants in Sabah deserve to get citizenship rather than those who can't speak Malay.

From his previous statements, everyone knows Mahathir was referring to the Chinese because some of the older generation such as the late tycoon Lim Goh Tong could only speak in pidgin Malay. But then the remarkable tycoon, despite his lack of education, could only speak pidgin English too. Yet can anyone deny Goh Tong's achievements in the business arena?

After being caught deliberately sleeping on the job once too many times, how can the MCA expect the Chinese to endorse its existence or place their trust in what appears to be a bunch of clowns out to champion its own cause rather than the community's?

Nonsensical arguments

Another recent boo-boo is of course Soi Lek's over-dramatic claim that has angered Selangorians. Soi Lek's dire prediction of a water shortage problem hitting ‘critical mass’ within two months was ridiculed. It backfired with Selangor folks scolding him for prostituting the facts just for political mileage.

If they had taken him seriously, many would have lost dearly due to the costs involved in evacuating to another state where there is miraculously no water crisis! The Rakyat (people) are not interested in doomsday events. They want to know what and why it is happening, what are the contingency plans that Selangor has in place. So far, these have been unveiled quite systematically by PKR Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim.

So Soi Lek, please don’t say that the Langat 2 project is the only solution as Selangor will be as dry as a desert in the two years while waiting for this project to complete. Don't treat the Selangor people as fools although you yourself may be one!

Fishing

UMNO too seems to have gone fishing. Armed with all kinds of bait like BR1M, oil royalties, second windfall and half-month bonuses, tyre and book vouchers, UMNO leaders are trying to net as many 'fence-fishes' as well.

MCA should seriously follow in UMNO’s footsteps and go fishing with some good bait like scholarships and other what-nots to entice the undecided ones instead of nagging like an old hag.

Yes, when all else fails, it is high time to go fishing instead of throwing pebbles into the pond to frighten the small fishes. Whether or not, such desperate strategy works remains to be seen but chances are Malaysians from all ethnic and income groups will ask, where were MCA, MIC, Gerakan and the rest of the BN chain-gang when we needed them in the past!

Why didn't they stop UMNO from their massive profiteering and plundering of the national coffer that until now, not a single component party dares to admit despite international statistics that show RM1 trillion has been stolen from the people since 2000.

Life is not a game. Nor just a debate. It is real and until the BN components realize that the people have wised up to the facts, there is no hope left for their coalition, or themselves.

Malaysia Chronicle