BEFORE last Saturday’s (Mayn11) Kuala Kubu Baharu (KKB) state by-election which saw DAP’s comfortable victory, MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong had categorically said that his party would not campaign for the unity government’s candidate.
The MCA’s snub can be traced to the war of words between Wee and DAP’s secretary-general Anthony Loke Siew Fok after the latter described MCA as a “parti towkay” (party of businessmen).
Loke also did not mince his words when during an interview in the “Keluar Sekejap” podcast claimed that he has no dislike for Barisan Nasional (BN) but just the MCA which coincidentally was a founding member of the coalition which ruled the country in excess of 60 years prior to conceding defeat to Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the 2018 national polls.
To Wee, the remarks by Loke who happens to be his successor at the Transport Ministry amounted to a political affront.
So, when the KKB by-election took place with DAP given the preference to field its candidate on grounds that the party through the late Lee Kee Hiong has reigned supreme in the state constituency for three terms, MCA decided not to lend its backing.
Explaining the rationale, Wee said this was a matter of pride. “The DAP secretary-general has openly cursed and insulted MCA, my party. As MCA president, am I supposed to keep quiet? I need to defend my party’s pride.
“After all the battering, curses and insults to MCA, now they (the critics) want MCA to help DAP campaign?” the Ayer Hitam MP chided in a video posted on Facebook.
In all likelihood, Wee was banking on DAP winning KKB with a slimmer majority, if not an outright defeat.
After all, the seat was an MCA stronghold until 2013 when the late Kee Hiong wrested the constituency and held on to it until her demise from ovarian cancer on March 21.
Traditionally, in a semi-urban seat like KKB, grassroots machinery played a crucial role in determining electoral outcomes. In this respect, MCA was superior to DAP which had the edge in more urban areas. The seat boasts just over 30% Chinese voters.
Had MCA’s plan panned out, Wee and his party would have thumbed their noses at its archnemesis-turned-reluctant-partner. It would have been “payback” for what the MCA perceived as a political insult.
Unfortunately for MCA, DAP’s greenhorn candidate Pang Sock Tao (front row, second from right) not only won the KKB by-election but the party’s percentage share of the votes increased compared with that during the August 2023 six state elections.
DAP’s victory in KKB should serve as a wake-up call that MCA’s brand of subservient politics was from a bygone era that no longer resonated with today’s voters. The drubbing the party received in the last general election by winning only two Parliamentary seats was a testament of how detached MCA was with the community it sought to represent.
As for the DAP-MCA spat that preceded the by-election, it was clear that voters in KKB had no interest in whether or not one party was riding roughshod over another. All they cared for was whether the candidate that sought to represent them could deliver on the promises.
Instead of relentlessly crying foul, MCA should take the opportunity to do some reflection from the KKB by-election. Otherwise, MCA will go down in history as a party that “Makes Chinese Angry”. – May 16, 2024
