Malaysian political parties for Chinese

Of the 3 main Chinese or Chinese-based political parties in Malaysia (in particular Peninsula Malaysia), namely MCA, DAP, Gerakan, the two main antagonists are MCA and DAP.

Gerakan is but a mere clone of MCA though admittedly it did start life by itself, having being a merger of Dr Lim Chong Eu's UDP, Dr Tan Chee Koon's Labour Party and various other personalities, unions etc. Just a side-note, Dr Lim Chong Eu himself was a former MCA President but why he left MCA to form the United Democratic Party (UDP) in Penang has to be another story.

But in 1973, after the then conservative pro-UMNO MCA President Tun Tan Siew Sin expelled Dr Lim Keng Yaik from MCA for the latter's  (then) radical Young Turk policy proposals, Keng Yaik brought his young MCA Turks from MCA into Gerakan, and in the subsequent process basically changed Gerakan's characteristics into being a clone of the MCA, becoming more and more Chinese based. 

There are three (3) reasons why the MCA is shit scared of DAP. these being:

(a) most of the Chinese Malaysians are currently right behind the DAP which means the MCA will end up in an election embarrassingly holding ducks' eggs, more so for a Chinese-based party which was once the mightiest Chinese political party in Malaya and then Malaysia.

Voters' support have to be built up over a large number of years, say 20 to 5 years, after a minimum of four to five general elections. and I would say the DAP, after being a fringe opposition party for years, has done just that.

Alas, for the PKR, Chinese Malaysians have never quite caught on to it for three reasons, principally because of its far-too Malayness, it being a splinter clone of UMNO, secondly, it failed at playing being a truly multiracial party though it claims to be so, presumably because of preceding reason one and the following reason three, and lastly but not least, because it is seen as a very personal vehicle of Anwar Ibrahim, which his wife Dr Wan created to free him when he was incarcerated for Sodomy I.

On the last reason, many Chinese saw it as a single-issue political party which would serve Anwar's cause until he returns to UMNO (and which many still believe he would if given the slightest opportunity), thus there is a finite life span on PKR.

Years ago, indeed many many years ago, I was invited to join PKR by a kindly Chinese towkay who was impressed by my style of blogging and my political thoughts which I discussed with him over tea and much ogling at his very charming daughter, wakakaka (much as some of you might strongly disagree, wakakaka).

He said he would sponsored me into the upper echelons of the party but I graciously declined, saying (a) I was a DAP supporter and (b) I could not participate actively and directly in frontline politics in Malaysia as I was working in Oz.

I recalled his response, which was that the DAP was far too Chinese and that I should consider coming home to 'rescue' the nation, wakakaka. I have to say he was/is a true Malaysian as he did not want to be seen as being too Chinese and felt the PKR would be a better bet than the DAP - last I met him he showed his great disappointment with the PKR, wakakaka.

At that time I did not want to disappoint him by revealing my dislike and distrust of Anwar Ibrahim and that, in my and many Chinese Malaysians' opinion, PKR was (and still is) a single-issue political party, where its cause had been and still is all about Anwar Ibrahim. Mind, I did not say I dislike PKR when I saw him last, wakakaka.

What about the MCA?

In the past, during our Malayan political beginning, the Chinese supported MCA which then had towering personalities like Tan Cheng Lock (later his son Tan Siew Sin), Henry HS Lee, and Lim Chong Eu, etc. Most MCA leaders came from or had links with the Chinese anti-communist KMT, an association which might have given UMNO leaders at that time some assurance of the MCA being anti-communist. 

As opposed to businessmen, traders and the English-educated who supported the MCA, the Chinese workers and new villagers flocked to the goo-t'au tong, the Labour Party, but that party foolishly committed political suicide by boycotting the general election of 1969 - a lesson to us that it's damn stupid to boycott general elections unless one is a nobody-no-hoper party like PPP and a host of kutu Indian and Indian Muslim party or wakakaka, Parti Cinta Malaysia, which has no hope of ever winning any seat at all, thus boycotting an election would be another face-saving act to avoid total humiliation at the polls.

Maybe the MCA should consider boycotting the coming general election, wakakaka.

To be continued ...