PETALING JAYA: Kluang MP Wong Shu Qi has called out MCA vice-president Ti Lian Ker for his statement on DAP failing to protect the Chinese community by giving in to Malay leaders, saying it was unbecoming of a deputy national unity minister.
The DAP MP said it was “audacious” for Ti to “project himself as a champion of a particular race” instead of fulfilling his role by promoting solidarity.
“It is hard to believe that a deputy minister who holds the national unity portfolio wrote a lengthy statement filled with racial rhetoric promoting particular ethnicities before national identity,” she said in a statement.
Wong said that Ti seems to have echoed the prime minister’s stance, in which Muhyiddin Yassin had previously declared that he was a Malay first before a Malaysian.
“As a result of this sort of racial ideology within the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government, MCA, the self-proclaimed Chinese champion, is now relegated to having almost no voice at all in key policy decisions in the government,” she said.
She claimed this showed the party’s ministers and deputy ministers were simply enjoying the perks of being part of the PN administration without putting in any actual work.
Wong said Ti’s accusations of DAP failing to protect the Chinese community by giving in to Malay leaders also contradicted Umno’s many attacks, saying that DAP controlled its partners in the former Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration.
Despite pitting different ethnic groups against each other, MCA was only “struggling to prove its worth” after taking part in the Sheraton Move and joining an unelected government, she said.
“Just like the PN government, which has utterly failed to manage the Covid-19 pandemic, protect our economy and provide stability to the country, MCA’s minister and deputy ministers utterly failed to perform in their respective portfolios, much less to protect the rights of the Chinese in Malaysia,” she said.
Over the weekend, Ti had said DAP had failed to fulfil its promises to the Chinese community, despite being given the chance in 2018.
He said that in not pushing for the post of deputy prime minister and having just four Chinese ministers despite winning the most seats in Parliament, DAP had “forgotten that it was the Chinese community that gave them the greatest support”.
In contrast, he said, MCA had stood firm against Malay and Islamic issues in the past, and that the party had been instrumental in ensuring Chinese values were upheld in government.- FMT