KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 17 ― Tan Sri Tan Koon Swan's claim that the ethnic Chinese dominated the local economy was a relic of the former MCA president's thinking that hurt millions in the 1980s, said Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong.

Disputing Tan's reported remark that the Chinese community need not feel aggrieved in Malaysia due to their control of the economy, Liew said the perpetuation of racial perspectives was why the country continued to suffer the effects of communal politics.

"We are now in the 21st century. With the failure of these racial ideas in 1980s, we should now be able to see that cooperate ownership by rich individuals of all ethnic groups,” Liew said in a statement today.

He also accused Tan of wrecking the lives of many local Chinese during his days, saying those who had bought into the MCA's ideas of fighting Malay political power through cooperative funding had lost their life savings.

Tan reportedly made the remarks in an article published by the Sin Chew Daily today.

The former MCA president had been imprisoned in Singapore in 1986 for his role in the so-called Pan-El Crisis.