KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — MCA leaders should not only champion issues that affect the local Chinese community, the party’s former president Tan Sri Dr Chua Soi Lek said today as the Barisan Nasional (BN) component continues its slide towards political oblivion.
He advised them to broaden their scope to issues that cut across racial lines, and gave a laundry list of examples beyond the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC), the Chinese private school leaving certificate that MCA had been highly vocal about before and after the May 9 general election.
“I don’t think they should just talk about the UEC, but address other issues such as good governance, transparency, media freedom, security issues and rising cost of living among others,’’ the former health minister said at Istana Hotel here where he was launching his biography titled Like Me or Hate Me: Rising from the Political Ashes.
Like many political observers before him, Dr Chua said his party’s poor showing in the 14th general election was due to its top leadership’s failure to address key trust issues, like the financial scandals plaguing 1Malaysia Development Berhad, the Federal Land Development Authority and Majlis Amanah Rakyat.
“MCA also did poorly because the Chinese community cannot stand BN,” he said.
However, Dr Chua said voters today are more critical and that the “honeymoon period” for the new Pakatan Harapan coalition that defeated BN would not last forever.
He believes his party can still recover its political support if its leaders can show they can change and urged MCA delegates to vote for a more “brave and courageous” leadership in the party’s internal polls next month.
“MCA must stand on its own and work to rebuild the party. This also include other parties in BN including Umno,” he said.
MCA currently has only one parliamentary seat in the Dewan Rakyat, courtesy of incumbent deputy president Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong’s victory in defending the Ayer Hitam constituency.
