Malaysian Chinese renew support to Govt.

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE, FEB. 28. The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), a key constituent of the ruling National Front, yesterday renewed its commitment to the ``core'' values of this long-ruling coalition such as ``good government'' and the ``development'' of all sections of the population such as the majority Malays and the minority Chinese as also ethnic Indians.

The renewal of this pledge, undertaken at the MCA's 51st anniversary celebrations in Kuala Lumpur, coincided with the latest political indications there that the Opposition Alternative Front, made up of four parties including the Malaysian-Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP), might soon seek to firm up their recent electoral alliance within a longer-term framework.

The MCA, which often competes with the DAP for political space within the Malaysian Chinese community, played a critical role in shaping the success of the National Front in the parliamentary polls held last November. The MCA did so by outwitting the DAP at the hustings in a considerable manner. The DAP, which had joined the Muslim-fundamentalist PAS party, was widely seen to have lost electoral ground among the Malaysian Chinese precisely on account of that alliance.

However, the PAS is now trying to woo the Chinese and Indian communities, and this aspect has encouraged the DAP to consider formalising its ties with the radical Islamist party in a longer perspective. Another factor in the DAP's current calculation is that the PAS has recently eroded the vote bank of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), a key constituent of the governing Front, within the majority community.

Referring to the PAS's suspected new strategy of making itself acceptable to the country's minorities, especially the Chinese, the MCA president, Dr. Ling Liong Sik, questioned the political legitimacy of this perceived outpouring of goodwill from an extremist religious party towards the Chinese in particular.

The Alternative Front consists of the DAP and the PAS, besides the Keadilan Nasional headed by Ms. Wan Azizah Ismail, the wife of the imprisoned political leader, Mr. Anwar Ibrahim. Another constituent did not open account in the recent parliamentary poll. However, the four are at present exploring the possibility of cementing their ties so as to capitalise on the current discomfiture within the UMNO over the loss of political ground to the PAS in the last poll.

Noting these dynamics, Dr. Ling, who is also the Transport Minister in the present Cabinet headed by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, told the MCA delegates that the association would remain steadfast in its support for the UMNO within the National Front. The MCA, he said, would not be just a fair-weather friend of the UMNO.

The MCA, whose genesis goes back to its establishment as a social welfare society in 1949, turned itself into a political party in October 1951. Beset by several crises over the years, the MCA is presently the most important component of the long-governing National Front, next only to the UMNO. It was against this background that Dr. Ling, speaking at the anniversary celebrations, said that the MCA would adhere to the ``core'' values of the National Front, such as democracy as also justice and economic fairness, as an article of faith and not a mere rhetorical slogan.

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Section  : International
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