Umno's whipping boys? Never again, says MCA's Wee

MCA will never again take the blame for Umno's follies, MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong has declared.

In an interview with Sin Chew Daily yesterday, Wee said MCA will now make decisions on its own, and hinted that BN will no longer be the same.

"Under our current leadership, whatever Umno says today will no longer be our responsibility.

"Whatever (wrong things the) past leaders said, whatever (wrong things) former ministers said, I'm not footing the bill for them. Sorry. We won't do that," he said.

Over the past few decades, BN component parties MCA, MIC and Gerakan have repeatedly been accused by then-opposition DAP of being accessories to Umno's excesses.

Both MCA and MIC were left with only one and two seats respectively in Parliament after GE14, while Gerakan was wiped out entirely.

"From 15 seats to seven, now we have one. I don't even have a shoulder to lean on," said Wee.

As the Alliance coalition, Umno, MCA and MIC formed the first federal government of Malaysia, before becoming the core of the BN coalition in 1973.

On whether MCA would remain part of BN, Wee said the future was unclear.

"BN suffered heavy losses. If you ask me what will happen tomorrow or the day after, no one knows.

"MCA is in self-preservation mode... MCA is now open to working with anyone. What will be the basis for our cooperation? It will not be in the traditional mould.

"(No one can now say) according to tradition we should do this and that," he said, adding that no one can predict what the future holds for Umno and BN.

Declassify 1MDB minutes

On 1MDB, Wee said he hoped that the new federal government will declassify the related cabinet minutes to reveal what MCA leaders had to say about the matter.

He stated that there was a cabinet meeting on the decision to instruct the auditor-general to investigate 1MDB and hand the findings to the Public Accounts Committee.

However, the findings from this probe were never presented to cabinet.

Another meeting, recalled Wee, saw the cabinet questioning 1MDB's management on its plans to handle the company's debts.

"I hope what I said (during those meetings) would be revealed. Once its declassified, we can talk about it.

"I am not worried about them (the government) making it public," he said. - Mkini