MCA made the right hard choice

"Malaysia is a multiracial country. If race-based parties continue to exist, they could affect the harmony and unity among the people as they are only looking out for themselves." 

- DAP national chairperson Tan Kok Wai

I am one of those people who argued that MCA should leave BN. Events of the few past months have made me revise my opinion. 

Here is the thing though. The cynical part of me thinks that as long as MCA stays relevant, even if they are part of BN, they are a convenient punching bag for DAP even though their criticisms may be credible. It is all part of the political game.

It is also good optics for Umno. As long as Umno can claim there is a multiracial component in BN, this mitigates Umno’s union with PAS. In a way, Umno needs MCA as much as MCA needs Umno.

In my open letter to the MCA, I made two points that are worth revisiting considering how the non-Malay components of Pakatan Harapan are struggling to find a narrative that differentiates them from the non-Malay political operatives from BN.

1. “MCA understands the nature of racial and religious politics when it comes to the power-sharing formula and more importantly, the fault lines when it comes to policy decisions involving the sensitivities of the majority.”

2. “And you have the luxury of not starting from scratch. There are some who would argue that MCA needs to but I am not of that opinion. While Umno rightly points out that MCA is bereft of their protection, the reality is that Umno has very little protection they can offer anyway.”

Right now, Umno/PAS are influencing policy in Harapan by banging the race and religion drum. Umno is still worried that its members are jumping ship hence, MCA’s role is much easier than when they were part of the Umno establishment. What they have to do is continue occupying the secular position in opposition to Umno/PAS and challenging DAP to do the same. When you are part of the government, you are part of its agenda.

The best thing going for MCA right now is that there is no “new Malaysia”. A fantastic example of this is when we have Azmin Ali giving funds to mosques and Lim Guan Eng making sure that the Chinese community understands that the donations to Chinese schools come from the Finance Ministry which he leads.

MCA VP Ti Lian Ker arguing in an op-ed piece that there is no post-racial Malaysia made some good points.  When he argued that the DAP’s “racial promise” in doing “away with bumiputera quotas, etc, which were blamed on Umno’s dominance and MCA’s compromises”, it points to the mendacious politics of this supposedly "new Malaysia."

Nobody has any intention of changing the system hence all this talk of racial quality as espoused by the polemics of the then opposition has not become a reality.

The corruption charges against former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak is a convenient excuse as to why nobody can trust MCA as though their complicity is a great sin which cannot be forgiven. This is nonsense. What of the corruption scandals of the numerous personalities that hold office in Harapan now? Apparently, their sins have been washed away when they joined Harapan. As long as Harapan chooses not to address this issue, all MCA has to do is let the legal process take its course and concentrate on the grassroots-level concerns of Malaysians regardless of race and religion.

Besides with all the “frogs” jumping into Harapan, there will come a time (fairly soon) when a case cannot be made that MCA is working with bad actors because most of the bad actors will be in Harapan. And as far as the racial rhetoric coming out of Umno, what of the racial rhetoric and policy shifts coming out of Harapan? Let Umno/PAS battle it out with Bersatu and the Malay power structures in Harapan.

MCA should make their stand clear in this conflict and challenge the non-Malay political operatives in DAP and PKR to do the same.

Most important, MCA should attempt to create more opportunities for working in a bi-partisan manner with anyone to influence policy. If this means working with PAS and especially the federal government, they should do this. One of the problems with this country is this idea of bipartisanship being anathema to the political process.

If working with PAS, for instance, serves some non-racial utilitarian value even if it means MCA is vilified, this is more important than the optics of staying away from a party which is vilified by Harapan political operatives.

This way, MCA will not be viewed as that Chinese party which lost Chinese support – a theme Umno’s Nazri Abdul Aziz likes to play often - but rather as the Chinese component of BN which can play well with others in circumstances that benefits all Malaysians.

Do not be baited into condemning PAS needlessly. Here is an example. PAS, for its own peculiar reasons, has decided to not reopen cinemas in Kelantan to curb social ills. The DAP challenges the MCA to make its stand on this clear because the MCA is part of BN. If this was really such an important issue why doesn’t the federal government step in and challenge PAS on the grounds the Kelantan government is trampling on freedom of assembly and expression and all those human rights issues that Harapan political operatives love to talk about?

Here we had a federal government which did nothing to stop the caning of Muslim women so why is it incumbent on MCA to monitor the Islamic policy of an opposition party when the federal government has the power to constrain the Islamic agenda in this country?

Whenever I talk to MCA political operatives and grassroots-level activists, what I get is this sense of not knowing how to navigate because they always seem to be on the attack against Umno or PAS. They assume that this would appeal to the base they lost. Not playing this game or playing it intelligently will go a long way in stabilising the divisive politics that have erupted since Harapan’s historic win on May 9. Sooner rather than later, people will notice this.

What the MCA should do is influence policy for non-Malays - like how Umno/PAS do it - by goading the non-Malay components in Harapan to speak up on egalitarian and secular policies, which benefit all Malaysians but more specifically safeguard the interests of the non-Malay communities. This, unfortunately, is the game we have committed to play.

The sooner MCA gets back to its original purpose of balancing the economic and cultural expectations of the Chinese community – which really does have a trickledown effect for the rest of the non-Malay communities – the sooner we will have the makings of a credible opposition. In the Malaysian context, that is.

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. A retired barrister-at-law, he is one of the founding members of the National Patriots Association. - Mkini