MCA man: Party ignoring real reason of defeat with 1MDB omission

Bandar Tun Razak MCA chief Chew Yin Keen has disputed the party's top leadership's findings for MCA's "disastrous defeat" in the May 9 general election.

Chew said MCA president Liow Tiong Lai had attributed the party's defeat to PAS splitting votes, MCA's opposition to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) (Amendment) Bill 2016 (Act 355) and billboards that said "voting BN equals voting Najib and wife".

"I do not agree with his review," said Chew in a statement today.

"In fact, it is well-known fact that the main reason for the defeat and the loss of federal power by BN in the general election is the scandals surrounding the outgoing prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and his family members, especially the 1MDB and RM2.6 billion 'political donation'," he added.

Chew said BN failed to respond to the wave of criticism over the matter.

He warned that if MCA refuses to acknowledge the real reason for its defeat, the party would never be able to recover.

"If MCA still chooses to ignore the real causes of the disastrous defeat and instead blame it on others, MCA will never be able to stand up again.

"Laying the blame on MCA’s strong position to the Act 355 and three-cornered fights are absurd as they are not the main reasons for the defeat of MCA.

"MCA needs to accept the real causes of defeat and rethink, strategise and move on to build an honest, sincere and trustworthy party," he said.

Chew said other factors for MCA's defeat include the good and services tax (GST), which had burdened the people including the Malay community which had traditionally backed BN.

Furthermore, he said MCA is perceived in the Chinese community as a "yes-man" to Umno.

"Another factor that caused the defeat of BN was the re-delineation of election boundary that the people, especially young voters, deemed the BN government as cheating the people’s rights as well as being unjust and unfair to the opposition.

"This caused the uprising of young and educated voters to rebel against BN," he said.

Chew said he is not accusing the MCA central committee of anything but hoped they can examine the real cause of defeat.

"Otherwise, MCA will vanish and become history," he said. - Mkini