Speech by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Petaling, Lim Kit Siang, at the Selat Klang DAP Branch Dinner to commemorate the Party’s 15th Anniversary held at Pandamaran New Village on Tuesday, 1st December 1981 at 8 pm
The problem with the MCA is not that it is a horse without enough grass to carry loads a far distance, but that it is a perverse horse which throws off and tramples on the goods it had been entrusted to carry
At the Jalan Cheras Taman Maluri MCA Branch dinner on Sunday, the MCA President, Datuk Lee San Choon, boasted that the MCA is the world’s third biggest Chinese party.
I presume that Datuk Lee means that after the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang of Taiwan, the MCA ranks third. I think such comparison is most unfortunate for it provides material for extremists who are always looking for opportunities to question the loyalty of MALAYSIAN CHINESE the justification to say that the Chinese in Malaysia still regard themselves more as Chinese rather than as Malaysians.
This reminds me of the speech by Tun Tan Siew Sin as the MCA Week celebrations where on behalf of the MCA. Tun Tan accused Malaysian Chinese of not being loyal enough to Malaysia, because there are businesses which still use ‘Overseas Chinese’ as part of their registered name.
Whatever Datuk Lee’s intentions and purposes in making such a claim, I do not see what he has to be proud of in such a boast. Nobody would dispute if he means that the MCA is the world’s third biggest Chinese party in terms of the ‘bigness of the purse’, because it is well-known inside and outside the country that the MCA is very wealthy, whether collectively or individually as far as the MCA leaders are concerned.
In fact, many MCA leaders got their wealth through their involvement in politics, providing the best case of those who use politics for personal fortune-building.
But Datuk Lee would himself admit privately that in terms of popular support, the MCA is probably the only Chinese party with the least public support. The MCA is the only Chinese party in the world where its leaders had to depend on UMNO’s Malay votes to get elected to Parliament and the State Assemblies, and from there to be appointed as Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries and State Executive Councillors.
Would Datuk Lee, if he really believes that he leads the world’s third biggest Chinese party, dare to stand in Kota Melaka, Seremban, Kuala Lumpur Bandar, Sungei Besi, Petaling, Ipoh, Menglembu, or Tanjung parliamentary constituency in the next general elections?
The MCA should feel completely ashamed of itself that though it claimed to be the world’s third biggest Chinese party, it leaders had to depend on UMNO’s Malay votes to get elected.
In the same speech, Datuk Lee likened the MCA to a horse, and said that if a horse has a lot of glass to eat, it would have strength to carry loads. On the contrary, if the horse has no grass to eat, it would not be able to cover a considerable distance even if it wanted to.
He said the MCA is like a horse, and it needed the people’s support as a horse needs grass.
But this analogy is not proper, for the MCA is not like a horse which had been denied grass. Everybody knows that the MCA has the most money in the country. Where did not all the money come from? Is this like a horse which has been denied grass to eat?
In any event, the problem with the MCA is not that it is a horse without enough grass to enable it to carry loads a far distance, but that it is a perverse horse which throws off, tramples and destroys the goods it has been entrusted to carry.
For instance, on the Merdeka University issue, which represents the aspirations of the people in the country, especially the Malaysian Chinese, the MCA’s conduct is not that of a horse without enough grass to enable it to achieve its realisation, but that of a horse which perversely tramples on the issue.
If the MCA is a horse without enough grass, then why is it it had ‘enough grass’ to wage a open campaign against the Merdeka University project? Or has it taken, not ordinary grass, but ‘strange grass’, namely, drugs?
In October 1978, I proposed in Parliament that the University and University Colleges Act be amended to specifically provide that private universities could be established, which are not subject to detailed governmental control. Again, the MCA had enough ‘grass’, to oppose this DAP proposal, which reflected the aspiration of Malaysians at large.
When a horse becomes so perverse, which does not want to carry goods, but want to trample and destroy these goods, then the horse must be quarantined, and must be denied ‘grass’ until it becomes more sane. Otherwise, the horse would not only trample on the goods, but also trample on the master as well! If the ‘horse’ become too far gone in the head, then it may have to be put to ‘sleep’ forever to prevent it from causing more harm.
But Datuk Lee San Choon must explain to the people that although he claims the MCA did not have enough grass to carry loads a far distance, who has been feeding it with the ‘strange grass’ which give it strength to trample and destroy the goods, and even threatening to trample on the master too?
Maybe, the MCA’s disease could only be treated by a veterinarian!
It is time that Datuk Lee and MCA stop boasting about their wealth and power, but should search their soul, if they have any, why they had to depend on UMNO’s Malay votes to get elected although they claim to be the world’s third biggest Chinese party.
Because the MCA knew that they have lost the support of the Malaysian Chinese, the MCA had caused the abolition of Municipal, town and local council elections. This benefits the MCA, for it enables their people to be appointed as District Councillors, but the losers are the people at large, who have been saddled with a local government which is not responsible to the people.
No wonder, the MCA is the world’s most rejected Chinese party.