MCA: Enter Perkasa, exit Chinese votes

KUALA LUMPUR: MCA has blamed right-wing Malay pressure group Perkasa and its chief Ibrahim Ali for the loss of Chinese support for Barisan Nasional in the Hulu Selangor by-election.
MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek lashed out at Ibrahim for calling on the government not to fulfill its promises of development to the Chinese community.

“I wish to condemn in the strongest terms the statement by the Perkasa chairman asking the government to stall the development allocations to the Chinese community.

“I wish to stress that government money belongs to the people. It should be used for the local community for local development,” he said.

Chua said Chinese voters of Hulu Selangor should not be punished for not voting BN.

The MCA president said he has raised this matter with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, and the latter vowed to deliver the promises made to the community.

“Najib assured that BN will fulfil its pledges of development. BN does not renege on its promises,” he added.

Continuing his attack, Chua said Malaysia will not be able to progess with people like Ibrahim who is not sensitive to the feelings of other communities.

Sunday's by-election saw BN's P Kamalanathan defeating PKR's Zaid Ibrahim by a 1,725-vote majority.

However, less than 30 percent of the Chinese voters backed the ruling coalition, leading Ibrahim to accuse them of being “ungrateful.”

BN must distance itself
MCA vice-president Gan Ping Sieu also took the Perkasa chief to task over his “ultra-rightist” statement.

Not only was the independent Pasir Mas MP's statement disturbing and damaging, Gan said, it was also seditious.

He added that one of the major reasons BN was losing Chinese confidence was the real or perceived alliance and close working relationship of certain BN leaders with ultra rightist organisations.

He also claimed that the widely-reported racially-bent statements stemming from a few fellow BN leaders had also taken its toll in the by-election.

Gan said that if BN sought to gain more backing from non-Malay voters, it should first practise self-distancing against any form of linkage with organisations such as Perkasa.

Otherwise, he warned, BN risked losing the support of non-Malay voters in the upcoming 13th general election.

"Politicians who make racist remarks from within their community will ultimately be forsaken by the people.

“I am certain that if Ibrahim were to stand as candidate in a non-Malay constituency, he would not even get more than 10 per cent of the votes," he added.