Support BN And I Will Do More For You, Says Najib
MCA's 62nd Annual General Meeting saw its leaders speaking against racial issues and urging Prime Minister Najib Razak to solve the brewing problem.
By Nandini Balakrishnan — 12 Oct 2015, 06:19 PM
Preaching unity among Malaysians and high-spirited speeches on working together to win the general elections, are a common occurrence at Barisan Nasional component parties' general meetings
MCA's 62nd Annual General Meeting was held yesterday, 11 October at Wisma MCA
Image via New Straits TimesWhile speaking about the spirit of togetherness, Prime Minister Najib Razak, when officiating the Malaysian Chinese Association's (MCA) 62nd general assembly, yesterday, revealed that the Chinese community must support BN in order to secure better positions with the ministry
Najib said this at MCA's 62nd annual general meeting that was held MCA's headquarters, Wisma MCA, yesterday.
According to the Malaysian premier, voting for BN's coalition partner, MCA, in the general elections, would strengthen the race-based party thus increasing the Chinese community's representation in the government.
He said such give and take is necessary to ensure that there is a sense of social justice in the country.
“You give some, and take some. You cannot take all, you take some.
“If you want more, tolong bagilah lagi (then please give more).
“You want more seats in the government, you increase your support for BN,” he said in officiating the MCA annual general meeting today.
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Adding to that, Najib insisted that he won't be able to do much for the Chinese community if they do not offer their support for BN, as he fears critics will slam him, if he offers help to people that have not shown any support for him
PM Najib Razak with MCA president Liow Tiong Lai's speeches during MCA's AGM was peppered with hopes of staying united to recapture the people's trust
Image via The Star“Otherwise I’ll get hit (by the critics). They’d say, ‘You give them so many things; (but) they don’t support you!’
“So please. Please give your support, and we can achieve even more, and we can do even more together,” he said.
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These statements on standing as one and supporting BN by Najib, came after MCA Youth chief Chong Sin Woon, lambasted BN leaders who condoned the "red shirts" rally and labelled Barisan Nasional as a "degenerating racial conflict factory" during a MCA Youth annual meet last Friday, 10 October
"In the latest red-shirt rally, we find that BN as a platform to ease ethnic conflicts is not working, and even deteriorated into a factory which creates ethnic conflicts instead.
"(Some BN leaders) sacrifice national interest and provoke racial sentiments in order to gain votes.
"Is there any hope for the nation's future? I think BN's transformation plan must not be delayed," he told representatives at the MCA Youth annual meet in Kuala Lumpur today.
Therefore, he urged BN parties to open their membership to all regardless of race.
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While MCA's youth chief took a direct hit at the BN leaders for their indifference over recent events, its president Liow Tiong Lai opted for a more diplomatic approach and asked the PM to set up a National Reconciliation Council for Political Governance, Religious Affairs and Unity to solve the growing racial tensions in the country
The council, he said, will be directly involved in addressing the disagreements that arise as a result of differences in politics, religion and race.
"We envisage that the council will have an active role in resolving and finding solutions to the tensions that arises specifically from racial differences, religious differences as well as the growing socio-economic gap," he said.
“I am concerned, Dato’ Sri (Najib), very concerned. I am certain the rakyat are anxious, worried and upset about what is going on,” he said.
His carefully-worded speech made references to incidents at the Sept 16 red shirt rally but the party chief did not name the culprits.
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Breaking his silence on the the recent happenings, MCA vice-president Wee Ka Siong warned that the component party will end its 60-year-old relationship with BN if the bout of extremism in the coalition remains unresolved
"If one day the BN spirit is gone, where moderation loses to extremism, pluralism loses to theocracy, BN will fall apart,” he said in his speech.
However, Wee stressed that the prospect of a divorce was the worst case scenario and MCA is doing its best to mend the issue.
"Our party president will lead us in taking necessary and positive steps to pull BN back on track," he stated.
"We cannot allow certain quarters in Umno to do whatever they want and destroy our stability," he added.
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Championing BN, Najib insisted that his party is still a better choice compared to the "hazy" opposition coalition
“You can have differences at state but not at federal level because it will be disastrous. Barisan may not be perfect but we are far better,” he said.
Earlier, MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai urged the Prime Minister to allocate RM50 million for the party’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) initiative.
In responding to the request, Najib said the proposal for Kojadi’s establishment would be taken into consideration.
“But first you must show support, otherwise people will question why do I give so much (for SMEs),” said Najib before winding up his speech.
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Talking about MCA's political opponent, DAP, MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong thinks that the Chinese community's support for the opposition parties will eventually erode their political power in the country
He also told young people not to be "obsessed" with DAP, let alone believing the newly-formed Pakatan Harapan can actually bring ‘harapan’ (hope).
"We have seen no matter what their slogan is, from ‘change’ to ‘ubah’ and then ‘ini kalilah’, or ‘harapan’ now, the opposition was not able to change anything, except leading to a situation where the Chinese stays in the opposition, causing the collapse of Chinese political power," he said.
Thus, he pointed out, as the opposition is split now, the Chinese community must realise that in the absence of support from the Malays, it is impossible to have change in government.
"Today, the newly formed Pakatan Harapan has excluded PAS in their coalition, coupled with the many internal problems within their pact. How is it possible for them to win more support from the Malay and indigenous communities?" he asked.
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Meanwhile, former MCA president Ong Tee Keat, in a switch of allegiance, has urged MCA members to call for a referendum on whether MCA should remain with BN or break away from it
Former MCA president Ong Tee Keat expressed his dismay over the MCA’s decision to still stand behind embattled Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
“So far, by and large I think the MCA grassroots being part of the community, they have lot of grouses if not uneasiness over the situation for the country and also their future.
"But if u ask me what is my view, of course I may handle the situation different as compared to what the current leaders are doing.
“If need be, we certainly need to go for a referendum within the party or community whether or not we should not stay within the (BN) coalition," he told a press conference at Putrajaya today.
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Taking a step back from all things political, Wee Ka Siong touched on the inaccuracies of facts found in year 4 History textbooks for primary schools and the importance of introducing diversity in school books
“In addition, we have also found mistakes in facts and translations and inappropriate pictures (year 4 textbook),” he said during the debate at the party’s 62nd annual general meeting yesterday.
“Last year, we submitted a 70-page proposal listing the mistakes and our suggested revisions for the textbook to the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister,” he said.
Apart from that, the party had also compiled history syllabus from Year Four to Year Six into a reference book that “encompasses diversity”.
Dr Wee said the book, which highlights the contributions of all races in nation-building, was “appropriate for all students in Malaysia”.
Some 330,000 copies of the reference book, scheduled to be completed on Nov 30, will be printed in December and distributed to primary schools nationwide.
Debunking recent talks about abolishing vernacular schools, Najib insisted that the government supports the policy of multi-culturalism, multi-linguism, multi-ethnicism and multi-religionism in Malaysia
“It was the wisdom of our forefathers to go for integration instead of assimilation.
“This is not decided by me but our forefathers. And because of this, we are a source of envy among other countries,” he said.
Najib said the coalition also rejected in total all forms of extremism.
He said, however, peaceful demonstrations would be allowed.
However, the past month has seen the Malaysian Chinese community receiving a great deal of negative comments from local politicians, mostly asking them to stop being "rude" and one even going to the extent of using the phrase "cina babi"
Malaysia's underlying racial issues have suddenly grabbed the attention of local politicians, especially after the events of the Bersih 4.0 rally that called for PM Najib Razak resignation over the unresolved 1MDB and RM2.6 billion scandals: