BARISAN Nasional chairman Najib Razak has thrown the gauntlet at MCA, challenging its oldest coalition partner to win at least 15 federal seats to justify its number of cabinet posts.
Speaking at MCA’s 64th annual general assembly, Najib reminded the Chinese party that it only has seven MPs now.
“But if you have 15, you’ll be a lot stronger in the government,” the prime minister said this morning.
He said DAP cannot form the government even if it won the bulk of the Chinese votes as in the previous elections in 2013.
“Tell the Chinese community, DAP cannot form the government.
“(The) reality is in the last election even though they won big they cannot form the government.
“They cannot do better than the last elections. They cannot.
“Even if they did as good as the last elections they still cannot form the government,” said Najib, who is confident that BN would win the 14th general election, which must be held by next August.
MCA suffered its worst electoral defeat when it only won seven out of the 37 federal seats and 11 out of the 90 state seats it contested in 2013.
In 2008, it did slightly better – winning at least a third – 15 out of the 40 parliamentary seats and 32 out of the 90 state seats it contested.
Prior to that, MCA had always been able to win more than half of the federal and state seats it contested since it first competed in the elections in 1959, except in the 1969 elections and 1990 elections where it still won more than a third of the federal and state seats contested.
Najib said with just seven parliamentary seats it won in 2013, MCA should only have had one Cabinet post.
“I had to consider giving additional (cabinet posts) to MCA.
“But we did it, we wanted to show that we listened to the Chinese community.
“But please give us your support. You cannot have everything your way.
“You want (Chinese vernacular) schools, you want this, you want that, but don’t give us your votes,” said Najib.
Currently, MCA president Liow Tiong Lai is the transport minister, MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong is a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department while MCA secretary-general Ong Ka Chuan is the second minister of international trade and industry.
He said the Chinese community should not complain about government allocations given to the Malays or other ethnic groups because they voted for BN.
“Umno got the strongest representation and won more seats (in the last elections),” he said.
He said if Chinese voters expect more from the government, then it must vote for BN.
MCA’s highest number of parliamentary seats was won in the 2004 elections, when it took 31 out of the 40 seats it contested.
In the last elections, MCA only managed to win seven out of the 37 seats it contested. – November 5, 2017.
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Comments
Posted 6 years ago by Ali Along · Reply
Posted 6 years ago by Bigjoe Lam · Reply
Posted 6 years ago by Bigjoe Lam · Reply
Reciprocally, those who do not get allocations from the BN government because they did not vote for the BN, should be exempted from paying taxes to the BN government. Do this by passing a law in parliament so that it is legal. At present, it is illegal and simply a bullying tactic to force people to vote for the BN. Do the teachings of Islam allow for such bullying?
Posted 6 years ago by Ravinder Singh · Reply
Posted 6 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply
And this time, they are positive that change may come. The current Harapan Presidential Council is far more cohesive than they will ever be. Every party agrees on Anwar becoming the eventual PM. Their policy platform is also in place, and not in dispute, unlike with PAS. Najib talks big as if UMNO will definitely win the next election and therefore cabinet positions are for him to give. In reality, UMNO's position is shaky, and he needs MCA, Gerakan, MIC etc and step up and be counted. He didn't need to make this move until he was checkmated by Harapan. For the past month or two, they have been scrambling on the moderation theme. You hardly hear anything about islamic extremism today, except occasional faux pas by Hadi Awang. No one (UMNO surrogate) has said anything remotely racist of late. Why? Unfortunately it's nothing to do with change of heart. They do this because their ultra-religious/ultra-racist platform has been badly neutralised by Harapan sorting out their Malay leadership. So don't for one moment think Malaysia is turning a new leaf. Far from that, it is just another cynical play at people's emotion, like what 1Malaysia is about.
Najib hopes that the Chinese may ask - so if UMNO is weak, wouldn't this be the best time to shore up MCA and Gerakan and have some influence? Sorry, they've been down this road before and it didn't work. I think they finally understand as long as UMNO stays in power, MCA and Gerakan will remain loyal pets with no ability to assert their influence at all. The only way to fight corruption is to instil the fear of God, that is, the fear of losing power. MCA should have been able to do that once upon the time when they were a great deal more influential. Today's MCA and Gerakan, they don't even dare to threaten to leave as a matter of principle because they will instantly transform from walking dead to persona non grata. So, even if it is tempting to think that the Chinese can assert influence over the government when UMNO is weakened, it won't change anything. It'll be votes wasted on MCA and Gerakan.
Long story short, the Chinese as strategic voters are thinking long term and time is not on BN's side. Do what you want to them. Harrass their business, tax them more, close down vernacular schools, withhold business licences etc. They are resilient people. They will survive. BN will not.
Posted 6 years ago by Quigon Bond · Reply