MCA veep: DAP feud exposes party hypocrisy over Chinese chauvinism
MCA vice-president Ti Lian Ker said the ongoing war of words between DAP's Ronnie Liu and party heavyweights Tony Pua and Hannah Yeoh had exposed the opposition party's hypocrisy over the role it has played in exploiting communal sentiments to gain support.
Ti (above) said DAP is a party whose survival depends on the provocation of Chinese voters' sentiments and the emotional exploitation of the Chinese community.
"DAP has for decades been a leech that sucks the blood of MCA - exploiting and provoking the emotions of Chinese people who are afraid of being assimilated like what has happened in neighbouring countries like Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
"So, when MCA made sacrifices and accepted racial compromises for the sake of the Malaysian nation such as wearing songkok as a uniform, accepting Bahasa Malaysia as the national language and so on, DAP stirred up the anger of Chinese voters against MCA and Umno in particular and BN in general.
"Liu, who is also a new villager and my school friend in Raub, only expressed the concern of DAP's hardcore supporters who expect DAP to be Chinese rights fighters under the 'camouflage' of politics of diversity," he said in a statement today.
Ti was commenting on the situation that developed after Sungai Pelek assemblyperson Liu courted flak for saying DAP should not belittle or degrade its "Chineseness" just to gain Malay support.
These remarks drew the ire of Pua and Yeoh, with Pua saying that Liu was a "Chinese chauvinist the party doesn't need" and Segambut MP Yeoh called Liu's views "toxic and narrow-minded".
Yeoh added that Liu does not represent her and that "the DAP that Ronnie desires is not the DAP that I joined".
Liu countered by saying that he was no chauvinist and claimed that Yeoh and Pua had used their own misinterpretations and prejudices against him in their comments.
Ti, who is also National Unity Deputy Minister, said that this sort of infighting was a result of DAP's internal contradictions of playing on Chinese sentiments while projecting itself as a multiracial party.
"DAP has gotten the majority vote in the Chinese community by saying that MCA is mortgaging the interests of the Chinese because it wants to be part of the government too much.
"Today, when Malay votes determine who will lead the government that will be elected, DAP is preaching pragmatic politics and is willing to sacrifice part of their Chinese vote base to gain more Malay votes in order to become the next government," he said.
Ti said DAP had been treating the Chinese voter base as a 'safe deposit' and was even willing to form a government together with Umno after failing together with other parties.
"This has to some extent stripped the real and hypocritical face of DAP while also worrying many grassroots leaders and genuine DAP supporters who believed the party would defend the Chinese community," he claimed.
