MCA will launch an all out war against Mahathir and his Perkasa
MCA stands firm on 1 Malaysia policy
The MCA’s stand follows several statements that were made recently by Umno leaders, former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Malay rights group Perkasa, who have claimed that the rights of the Malays were being increasingly eroded.
“People are allowed to engage in rhetoric. This shows democracy is working,” MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek (picture) told reporters today.
“But we hold to what the prime minister is saying. The prime minister says that he wants to practise an inclusive policy. The whole concept of 1 Malaysia is inclusiveness,” he said.
Yesterday, Puteri Umno chief Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin warned that the position of the Malays will be threatened should a non-Malay assume the premiership.
Last Tuesday, Dr Mahathir said the Malays were not aware of the political threat facing them as they were divided into three groups (PAS, PKR, Umno), where no one group could obtain a percentage of Malay votes that can secure power for the community.
Perkasa has also repeatedly said that the 1 Malaysia concept was not based on racial equality, but should instead be founded on Article 153 of the Federal Constitution, which states the special position of the Bumiputeras and allows the government to set quotas for educational institutions, government jobs and permits.
“Umno is entitled to their rhetoric, Perkasa is entitled to their own rhetoric, and Dr Mahathir is entitled to his own rhetoric,” said Dr Chua.
“But we will not hold to what Perkasa is talking. We will not hold to those who have retired and are still talking,” he added, in a thinly-veiled reference to Dr Mahathir.
The MCA president stressed that although various parties had the right to speak their minds, they were not the prime minister.
“They are allowed to say, (but) they are not the prime minister,” said Dr Chua.
“It is just like in The Malaysian Insider, you can continue to say, but the person who calls the shot is your boss,” he added, referring to the online news portal.
National Civics Bureau (BTN) Federal Territory deputy director Hamim Husin’s alleged racist remarks against the Chinese and Indian communities yesterday, however, sparked a reaction from MIC and DAP leaders who said that Najib’s 1 Malaysia policy was being undermined by his own men in the government’s controversial agency.
“The ‘si mata sepet’ that has never gone to a mosque or surau only has one vote. The ‘si botol’ that only knows how to go up to Batu Caves up and down only has one vote,” said Hamim at a closed-door Puteri Umno function yesterday.
DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang also accused Najib’s deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin of backing the BTN in an open revolt to ruin the prime minister’s brainchild 1 Malaysia.
The veteran leader claimed that was because Muhyiddin was one of the biggest champions of the government’s “racist” BTN, saying that this was also one of the main reasons why he had failed to act on the two school principals accused of spewing racial slurs against Chinese and Indian Malaysians.
MIC vice-president Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam also said that Hamim’s remarks could be interpreted as reflecting the views of the Najib administration, which in turn would reflect badly on Najib’s all-inclusive 1 Malaysia concept.
Today, Dr Chua underscored the importance of Najib’s commitment to his 1 Malaysia policy that was formed to foster national unity.
“We hold him (Najib) to it,” said the MCA president.
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