The decline of BN’s non-Malay partners: Time for MCA and MIC to rethink their loyalties

Murray Hunter


The decline of BN’s non-Malay partners: Time for MCA and MIC to rethink their loyalties

P Ramasamy
May 01, 2025





A recent exchange between leaders of Barisan Nasional (BN) highlights the deepening cracks within the coalition. An UMNO leader, reacting to the frustrations expressed by the MCA Secretary-General, advised the MCA not to sulk but to strengthen its ties with the Chinese grassroots to reinforce BN’s position.

However, the dissatisfaction voiced by the MCA is not baseless. The party has found itself increasingly marginalised within BN, a coalition where UMNO’s hegemonic rise has directly contributed to the weakening of its non-Malay partners—MCA, MIC, and Gerakan. It is disingenuous for any UMNO leader to claim that UMNO bears no responsibility for the MCA’s current decline.

UMNO’s dominance, especially in the spheres of ethnicity and religion, eroded the relevance and influence of its non-Malay counterparts. As UMNO pursued a narrow ethno-religious agenda, it created a political climate where the MCA and MIC struggled to maintain credibility among their respective communities.

Today, BN is a shadow of its former self. As UMNO itself weakened due to internal strife and competition from other Malay-Islamic parties, the collateral damage was felt most acutely by the MCA, MIC, and Gerakan.

The situation worsened when BN, for political expediency, aligned with Pakatan Harapan (PH), including the Democratic Action Party (DAP)—a party long portrayed by UMNO as a threat to Malay interests, and a scapegoat for the MCA’s and MIC’s eroded support among non-Malays. UMNO’s embrace of DAP was seen by many as a betrayal, particularly by MCA and MIC leaders and supporters.

Defending this alliance as political strategy only serves to mask the reality of the betrayal felt by BN’s non-Malay partners. To claim that MCA’s decline is entirely self-inflicted while ignoring the overarching manipulation by UMNO is a distortion of history.

The real question now is why MCA and MIC continue to remain subservient to a weakened UMNO. Has decades of political conditioning under UMNO’s dominance stripped these parties of the will to chart their own paths?

It is perhaps time for MCA and MIC to acknowledge that the BN coalition, as it stands, is no longer a meaningful vehicle for the representation of their communities. The long-standing political and cultural subordination to UMNO has left these parties without initiative or pride.

The path forward must involve serious introspection and the courage to break away from a coalition that no longer serves their interests. Only then can MCA and MIC hope to regain relevance and reconnect with their grassroots.