MCA led astray by business, laments party veteran

Yap Pian Hon says the party invested too much of itself in the Belt and Road initiative, and lost its focus on politics.

Yap Pian Hon says MCA became a laughing stock and was regarded as a commercial organisation. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: An MCA veteran, Yap Pian Hon, believes the party’s election failures stem from the party being led astray into business and away from its political struggle.

He said MCA had become a laughing stock, “all about money and investment”, which had derailed the party.

If the party was to be revived, it must return to its political struggles, Yap said in an interview with FMT at his office in Seri Kembangan, Serdang.

He lamented the party’s failure to carry out political education programmes for members.

“During my time we held political seminars and took them very seriously. These programmes were conducted to train new members. “Today, new members join the party and end up asking what are the opportunities they can get from the Belt and Road 2.0 initiative,” he said.

The party had taken a wrong turn by investing itself entirely in the Belt and Road programme in response to China’s One Belt, One Road initiative to build infrastructure across Asia.

“MCA is a political party, they have no business meddling with any Belt and Road initiative,” he said, accusing party leaders of repeatedly stating that the Belt and Road was “their main task”.

“In some circles, when I sit down to talk to people, they no longer call MCA a political party but instead they call it a commercial organisation.

Yap, a five-term state assemblyman and three-term MP for Serdang, said that MCA leaders had yet to look into the cause of the party’s electoral defeats since 2013.

“They promised change and reform, but it looks like it is all merely a party slogan. For five years, nothing changed.”

He accused party leaders of encouraging factionalism in the party, and contrasted the political fortunes of MCA and DAP.

While MCA boasted that it had one million members, “70% of the branches are deemed defunct”, he said. DAP were successful although they “only have a few thousand members”, and questioned why MCA leaders had not gone around to revive defunct branches.

Yap said party members should stop blaming Umno as the main factor for MCA being weakened. The party would gain respect if it was strong, he said. MCA leaders should stop issuing public statements and put efforts into reorganising the party so that it can stand on its feet again.

He said Pakatan Harapan was not perfect and were also facing problems and conflicts within the coalition. “We should take this opportunity to find a way to make a comeback,” he said, noting that the Chinese community were rigid and inflexible.

MCA won only seven of 37 parliamentary seats it contested in 2013, and 11 of 90 state seats. At the general election this year, the party won only one parliamentary seat, Ayer Hitam in Johor, and a state seat each in Perlis and Pahang. -FMT

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