‘MCA should stay out of cabinet’

PETALING JAYA: New MCA president Liow Tiong Lai has been urged to stay out of the cabinet and speak out on people’s rights to regain Chinese support.

MCA cadre training bureau executive director Howard Lim said Liow should remain out of the cabinet to dismiss public perception that MCA members only fought to become ministers.

“Even if MCA decides to rejoin the cabinet, the president should stay away and ask his deputy or number 3 to take up the government positions.

“He should instead play the role as an advocate of people’ rights and speak up on their behalf. Only then can MCA regain the respect of the Chinese,” Lim told FMT today.

He suggested that Liow set up a committee and lobby for the government to adjust certain policies such as income tax reduction so that the price hike impact on the people would be minimal.

He said taking up a cabinet post would show Liow was still stuck in the traditional mindset that MCA could only help if they were in the government.

“If he still carries that mindset then MCA is finished and the party would be seen as having no integrity in its ‘no government post’ decision,” he said.

Liow is scheduled to discuss the “no government post” decision in the first central committee meeting on Jan 2.

Liow-Wee pair

Lim said Liow should allow the new deputy president, Wee Ka Siong, a free hand to do things to produce better results.

He said many members perceived Liow as weaker than Wee in term of ability.

“When Wee spoke against the scraping of Chinese dialects in Ai FM a few days ago, he had to mention at least three times that it was Liow who had asked him to do so.

“He has to tone down and try not to outshine Liow,” he said.

Political analyst Tang Ah Chai, however, said the Liow-Wee combination would perform better than the previous leaders because they were long-time allies.

He said MCA must echo the sentiments of the Chinese on major issues if it wanted the community to return to the MCA fold.

Chinese prefers Pakatan

Tang said MCA was facing an uphill task because the Barisan Nasional was no longer monopolising the local political scene and the party must step up to be in pace with the community.

“The party used to tease the opposition as being inexperienced and incapable, but DAP, MCA’s arch rival is in the government in Penang and Selangor. People can judge their performance.

“When Pakatan Rakyat ruled Perak, they allocated land for Chinese independent schools to be self-sufficient. In Penang and Selangor, they gave allocations to Chinese schools. In Selangor, they give 20 cubic metres of free water.

“These are some policies which made people feel that Pakatan Rakyat has performed well and these policies were later copied by the Barisan Nasional.

“Unless the Pakatan Rakyat’s performance dropped, MCA does not have any chance to make a comeback,” he said.

He said the “death penalty” was given to MCA because of the long-accumulated impression that the party did not care about Chinese aspirations.

He added that some of the MCA’s approach was no longer relevant such as when Liow organised a meeting with the Chinese societies to obtain input to revamp the party.

“These organisations can no longer represent the community as a whole. MCA needs to establish a mechanism to build rapport with every part of the community, not just these societies.

“But the problem is, everyone in MCA know they need reforms. But how? That remains a question,” he added.