A Government without MCA Representation?

If MCA's decision not to allow its members to participate in the government at Federal or State level is strictly enforced, then there will be no MCA Chinese representative at all in the Barisan government. There'll only be opposition members from DAP or from other parties in Pakatan. What will the philosophy of multiracialism and concept of power sharing in the government then become? All Chinese interest can only then be represented by the opposition as set against the interests of other racial groups. Racialism will be the order of the day.


God forbids. Even if all Malaysian politicians are wise and sane enough to avoid open racial conflicts and confrontation, there cannot be any goodwill and love between the multiracial citizens anymore.Their interest would be totally divided along racial and political lines. Disaster would befall the country.

The Prime Minister is thus faced with a very difficult situation now in forming his Cabinet line-up. Who can he get to represent the Chines in the Government since MCA will refuse any position offered? Only four major alternatives are open to him,
(1) form a Cabinet with only Malays and Indians representatives
(2) get some representatives in Cabinet from prominent Chinese community leaders outside MCA, through non-political association,
(3) appoint some Chinese leaders from among his own trusted friends as Ministers, and
(4) include some elected Chinese leaders from the Opposition party to join his Cabinet ( which requires a coalition of sort).
Of course the PM can resort to all those alternatives in various degrees.

But will that overcome the real issue faced - that the Chinese community had rejected MCA to represent their interest and that Barisan as it is does not command their confidence anymore. No matter what Datuk Seri Najib will do to assure them that BN and he himself ( as a Prime Minister for all, irrespective of races) will take care of their interest, the trust once enjoyed is gone. And the door to regaining that trust through MCA seems closed by MC's own decision itself, which may have been done to rebuke the Chinese for the lack of support.

We have thus a very complicated problem for Datuk Seri Najib to solve.He might need to reestablish the Department of National Unity again, and maybe tun it into a Ministry to deal with the reemergence of the racial issue.. The current situation may well be the result of a neglect on the significance of maintaining harmonious community relationship and allowing material progress to exceed multiracial cooperation by the government. The goals of national unity as spelled out in the NEC, especially that of spreading wealth and not allowing it to remain in the hands of a few billionaires, had not been pursued well. And the need to assist the underprivileged and the poor, irrespective of race, had been terribly misunderstood.

The new 5-year term of office as won by Barisan should, therefore, be used as a period of rescrutiny of the national objectives and bringing the Malaysians of all races together again. This should remain as the most important overall goal, over and above creating a modern high income nation.