'Silent' MCA helping PN to oppress Chinese with budget cuts - Guan Eng

 

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has accused MCA of facilitating the oppression of the Chinese community.

This is over what Lim claimed was MCA's silence despite deep funding cuts for the Chinese community under Budget 2021.

"Has any MCA minister raised the issue of funding cuts for the Chinese community?" Lim said in a statement today, noting the MCA's penchant for positioning itself as the champion of the Chinese community.

"MCA claims that it joined the 'backdoor government' to save the country but is now helping the backdoor government to oppress the Chinese community," he added in the statement issued in Chinese.

MCA is part of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government which replaced the Pakatan Harapan administration after the latter collapsed due to defections.

Lim said the Chinese community was expected to get around RM404.5 million in funding this year comprising RM219.5 million for education, RM100 million in small business loans and RM85 million for the infrastructure and maintenance of new villages.

Instead, he said the Chinese community only got RM177 million under Budget 2021, which is 0.055 percent from the total budget size of RM322.54 billion.

Lim accused MCA of not making an effort to raise the issue with Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz and instead opted to attack its opponents as a diversionary tactic.

The opposition has also raised the issue of the MCA-owned Tunku Abdul Rahman University College being allocated a mere RM2 million under PN's Budget 2021 even though the previous Harapan government had announced a RM40 million allocation.

However, MCA president Wee Ka Siong maintained that the university college will get the money even though there was no "black and white" in the budget document. - Mkini