MCA-Gerakan pact won’t bring back Chinese votes to BN

Gan Pei Ling Liow Sze Xian Gan Pei Ling, Liow Sze Xian Updated 6 years ago · Published on 5 Jan 2018 4:00PM · 7 Comments

(From left) Hou Kok Chung, Ong Kah Chuan, Liang Teck Meng and Dominic Lau Hoe Chai at a joint MCA and Gerakan press conference in Wisma MCA at Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. The two Chinese-based parties will work together at the next elections. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Hasnoor Hussain, January 5, 2018.

THE pact between Barisan Nasional component parties MCA and Gerakan will not regain Chinese Malaysian votes for the ruling coalition, said critics who described this as an election stunt.

Both Chinese-based parties have been unable to address the community’s core concerns, which included good governance issues, such as corruption and abuse of power, mismanagement of the economy, and rising living costs, analysts said.

“Every election, there will be similar kinds of unity events. They had it before the 2008 political tsunami, during (former Gerakan president) Dr Lim Keng Yaik’s time,” said Tan Seng Keat of the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research.

“It’s a publicity stunt to show unity and to give a morale boost to their election machinery in the lead up to the 14th general election,” said Tan, who is the independent pollster’s research manager.

“I have my reservations on whether this pact would change the election’s outcome.”

MCA and Gerakan are holding a joint rally at the MCA headquarters in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow to cement their cooperation for GE14. 

They are expected to announce details of their pact on the same day.

Both parties have traditionally delivered the Chinese-Malaysian vote to BN but suffered their worst electoral outing in 2013 when BN lost the popular vote for the first time.

Chinese Malaysians contributed 50.21% or 2.92 million votes of the popular votes won by the now-defunct opposition bloc Pakatan Rakyat in 2013.

MCA won only seven out of 37 parliamentary seats and 11 out of 90 state seats it contested while Gerakan won just one federal seat and three state seats.

MCA deputy president Dr Wee Ka Siong says working with Gerakan will benefit both parties, as voters think they are at loggerheads. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, January 5, 2018.

In comparison, their nemesis, DAP, won 38 out of 51 parliamentary seats and 95 out of 103 state seats it contested.

DAP also wrested Penang from Gerakan in 2008 and retained the state in 2013. Gerakan controlled Penang between 1969 and 2008.

Last November, Prime Minister Najib Razak challenged MCA to win at least 15 parliamentary seats in the next elections to justify the three cabinet posts the party holds.

Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong said the party is confident of regaining Penang. 

MCA deputy president Dr Wee Ka Siong told The Malaysian Insight working with Gerakan will benefit both parties, as they used to give the impression that they are at loggerheads.

“We need to support each other. MCA needs Gerakan’s support and Gerakan needs MCA’s support,” said Wee.

This is not the first time both parties are working together, said Gerakan secretary-general Liang Teck Meng.

“We’ve been working together since the beginning,” he said, refuting speculation that the cooperation was ordered by BN chairman Najib Razak.

Sinking ships and Umno proxy

Tan said many Chinese Malaysians still saw MCA and Gerakan as proxies of Umno, BN’s lynchpin Malay party.

He predicted that even if there were a minor swing back to BN in the next polls from Chinese voters, it would be negligible.

Such a swing would come from both the parties’ traditional supporters who voted the opposition in 2013 in the hope changing the government.

DAP Selangor vice-chairman Hannah Yeoh says voters want to see parties standing up to Umno’s corruption and abuse of power. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Hasnoor Hussain, January 5, 2018.

DAP election strategist Dr Ong Kian Ming said MCA and Gerakan should cooperate to check Umno on issues, such as racial extremism, education reforms and to press for a fairer electoral system.

“I think if they can show progress on these matters at the national level, they would stand a higher chance of winning back some of their support rather than just cooperating for the sake of cooperating in order to oppose DAP,” said Ong.

Both parties have also yet to show that they can be an effective opposition in Penang, he said.

“It would be much more credible if they can work with Umno and MIC to come up with alternative policies on how they would govern Penang if they were to recapture power.”

For instance, the federal opposition pact Pakatan Harapan has produced an alternative budget and is now working on its manifesto for GE14.

DAP Selangor vice-chairman Hannah Yeoh is also critical of the MCA-Gerakan cooperation.

“One sinking ship plus another sinking ship isn’t much of a lifeline. They still fail to understand that voters have rejected them because of their inability to stand up to Umno,” said Yeoh.

Unless MCA and Gerakan can explain to voters about their efforts to check Umno’s corruption and abuse of power, such as the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal, their cooperation is not going to make a difference in the country’s political scene, she said. – January 5, 2018.

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Comments

  • Never place ur trust on a bunch monkeys

    Posted 6 years ago by Leslie Chan · Reply

  • "...Prime Minister Najib Razak challenged MCA to win at least 15 parliamentary seats in the next elections to justify the three cabinet posts the party holds...."

    15 seats?

    HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!

    MCA will be lucky to hold onto its 7 seats!!!

    "...Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong said the party is confident of regaining Penang. ..."

    Is this Mah Siew Keong fellow on drugs or something?

    The man is deluded!!

    A classic example of mental masturbation.

    Posted 6 years ago by Musa Ng · Reply

  • mca, gerakan, mic must understand that their enemy is not dap but umno. umno always makes unilateral decisions which make their life miserable. And umno these goons are cowards and would not stand up against them. mca, gerakan and mic are caddie boys for umno masters. their image is at the lowest. they just talk for syok sendiri and nothing worthy.

    Posted 6 years ago by Nathanji Devan · Reply

  • As long as you continue to co-operate with umno - more & more non-Malay will increasingly drop you. Umno is perceived as racist, corrupt and bigot - and dominates BN. All small mosquito party need a re-engineering and revamp

    Posted 6 years ago by Chris Ng · Reply

  • Both MCA and Gerakan are now branded by the Chinese community as "Kor Kai Lo Shi" ( street crossing rat or street rat ) which in actual definition is "free for all to bash". It is understood that anyone who happen to see a street vermin will either shoo it away or take up a broom to pulverise. If the vermin is lucky it could scamper off or else beaten to pulps or maybe even scald. That is MCA and Gerakan seen in the eyes of the Chines race. To be seriously detested and no love loss......

    Posted 6 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

  • Since the MCA and the Gerakan are more or less irrelevant now, a better solution would be for both parties to dissolve and for all its members to join DAP. Then all the assets of the two parties can be transferred to DAP.

    Posted 6 years ago by Yok Foo Yap · Reply

  • BN has completely lost the support of the Chinese (except from MCA, Gerakan member and BN cronies) no matter what

    Posted 6 years ago by Nazrin Azli · Reply