MCA veep admits his party is weak

But it was worse during the Mahathir years, says Gan Peng Sieu

PETALING JAYA: An MCA vice president acknowledged last night the weakness of his party’s voice in Barisan Nasional, but said it was even weaker when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was prime minister.

“MCA is rather too weak for comfort,” said Gan Peng Sieu during a debate with PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli yesterday.

He said MCA members in the federal cabinet had little say in policy-making processes except when the policies concerned issues relevant to their portfolios.

But the party was “especially weak” during the Mahathir years, he added. “Now, at least, it has grown stronger than before.”

He said the weakness could be “politically fatal” in the long run.

However, he added, the imbalance of power in Pakatan Rakyat was just as bad as in Barisan Nasional.

He noted that PAS was dominant in Kedah and Kelantan while DAP was the one calling the shots in Penang.

He said Malaysia was heading towards a two-coalition system as opposed to a two party-system, making it possible for individual parties to switch camps.

He said he would not be surprised if PAS were to rejoin BN or Sarawak’s Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu were to defect to Pakatan Rakyat.

Gan, who is the Deputy Minister of Sports and Youth, defended MCA as a mono-ethnic party, saying there was “nothing shameful” about it because areas such as Seputeh and Ampang New Village would always be Chinese-majority areas needing community-oriented services.

However, he added, the way forward for MCA was to embrace national interest while advocating communal issues.

“We have to be very vocal on the things that we claim to represent,” he said.

Rafizi said his non-racial outlook was developed when he went to a boarding school for Malay boys where half the teaching staff was non-Malay.

He said it was now easier for Malaysians to transcend racial differences because advancements in technology had made information easily available.

“We have achieved something,” he said. “For example, by fielding me to contest in Pandan, we have put a Malay candidate in a non-Malay majority area. This was never seen before.”