September 10, 2010
It will always be about race, says Dr Chua. — File pic
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10 — MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek says Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will find it equally hard to manage race relations and the expectations of each community if it succeeds in dislodging Barisan Nasional (BN) from power.
In an interview published in Singapore’s The Straits Times today, Dr Chua said that Malaysian politics had become “more racially charged than ever”, despite the emergence of PR which campaigns on a non-racial platform.
He argued that this was because politics involved balancing the needs of all ethnic groups, and suggested that it would always be a zero-sum game between the different communities.
“Everybody will have some degree of satisfaction and some degree of dissatisfaction,” he said.
Dr Chua’s remarks come after he and his party took another body blow from Umno and Malay groups following his suggestion for a gradual reduction of Bumiputera quotas.
Dr Chua and his party were publicly taken down a peg by many Umno leaders, in a spat which makes it even more difficult for the MCA to regain support from Chinese voters.
According to the MCA’s own estimates, the party has the support of barely 30 per cent of Chinese voters.
The DAP, a Chinese-dominated multi-racial party in the PR coalition, is now seen as the choice of the Chinese community.
The Chinese have also thrown their weight behind PKR and even PAS in the PR coalition.
Despite Dr Chua’s arguments, recent surveys have shown that the Chinese and even the Malay communities are increasingly becoming weary of race-based initiatives practised by BN.
But the MCA president maintained in his interview with The Straits Times that PR parties are still race-based as well.
“So whoever comes to power, whether it’s BN or PR, it’s a game of balancing, of managing the expectations, needs and fears of all the races. And this is not an easy game,” he told The Straits Times.
Dr Chua also denied that BN or Umno had contributed to the racially charged atmosphere he described, calling hardline Malay groups like Perkasa, which is seen as aligned to Umno, “a minority of the minority”.
Dr Chua, you are dead wrong. PR parties are not race-based. Race-based, no! Dominated by a particular race, yes! So, please get your facts right!
DAP, PAS and PKR are open to any race!
Is there anything wrong for a government to be controlled by a particular race? No, there is nothing wrong as long as every citizen is treated EQUALLY in spite of ethnicity. Singapore is an excellent example of a ethnocracy that practices meritocracy!
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