MCA ELECTION SHOULD BE A BATTLE OF IDEAS TO SAVE THE PARTY/ 马华党选应为救党的政见之争

The MCA election campaign should be a battle of ideas, so that party grassroots can vote for the best team to save the party and chart its direction for the future.

Instead, a quick glance at the Chinese and English newspapers will show you that nothing of the sort has happened.

The message being sent to the Chinese community is that the MCA is a party with no ideas.

Instead of ideas, the campaign so far has been speculation about who is taking on whom for which post.

It is about whether there is a Team A or Team B, and more crucially it is about personal attacks.

Sure, I accept that morality is an issue, as was mentioned in a story I read the other day. But what I did is out there in the open. I have never said that my apology wipes clean any slate.

But frankly what I would rather talk about to party members and Malaysians in general are the real issues the MCA has to face.

The MCA has lost the support of a majority of the Chinese community. That is a fact which none of the declared candidates want to address.

So I would like to hear from the declared candidates for the top posts from the presidency downwards to let the party know how they propose to regain the support of the Chinese.

As I said before, I will have to take some responsibility for the state the MCA finds itself in, where it is seen as a weak party which does not stand up for Chinese interests or represent and articulate the aspirations and frustrations of the Chinese or other communities in the country.

But I think nearly every candidate in the party elections will have to share in the blame as well for why the Chinese are not supporting the MCA.

We are now being seen as irrelevant. While the Pakatan Rakyat parties rule and debate national issues, the MCA talks about irrelevant issues.

As I said before, the MCA will need to be seen as a party which can stand up equally before its partners in the Barisan Nasional (BN).

The party needs to be a catalyst for progress so that BN can return to its original form of partnership where no single Malaysian, regardless of race or religion, is left behind.

We need to engage Umno in dialogue to talk about the future direction.

We need a leader who can rebuild our party into a cohesive team which will not be bullied by anyone.

I would like to see a great battle of ideas out there in the current election campaign, ideas on how to rebuild MCA.

Now that many of us are not even involved in state or local governments, we should have more time to put forward ideas for the future direction of the country and the party.

Perhaps we as MCA members should demand those declared candidates to come out with some concrete manifesto.

Declaring a candidacy is easy, but justifying it can be much harder.

马华党选已近在眉睫。我认为，马华党选应该是场比拼政见的战役，候选人要提出前瞻性的政见，让基层党员投选出一个可以拯救党，及规划党未来方向的最佳领导团队。

然而，目前中、英文报章所报道的马华党选新闻，我们看不到这一点。相反的，综合报道所传达给华社的讯息，显示马华是一个没有主张、政见的政党。而报道的重点皆聚焦臆测准候选人的动向、竞选哪些高职。媒体的焦点也离不开“A队”或“B队”，更严重的是出现了人身攻击的舆论。

我认同道德是一项课题，关于道德，我在之前的文贴说得很清楚，也在公开言论里表达我的想法，却从来没说过要以道歉为自己漂白。

与其去争论，我宁用更多时间精力去探讨、与向党同志及马来西亚人民谈论马华迫切面对的大课题。

马华已经失去大部分华人的支持，但迄今却没有任何一名已表态的候选人愿意去评论这个事实。

因此，我希望从那些已表态竞选高职的候选人口中听到更多实在的政见，也让党员了解他们将如何让华社重拾信心，继续支持马华。

诚如我之前所说，马华今天被视为无法争取华社利益、被批未能够代表反映华社及其他族群意愿，我也须承担部分责任。但我认为几乎每一位党选候选人，都必须共同承担马华失去华社支持的责任。

今天，当人民联盟不断发表和激辩国家课题，马华却还只谈论不切实际的议题。也难怪华社视马华为不切实际的政党。

对于马华的改革要项，我已多次公开论述。马华要能和其他国阵成员党平起平坐。马华要担当促使国阵改革前进的催化角色，复原国阵原有的伙伴合作模式，不计宗教、种族确保所有马来西亚人民不被忽略。因此，我们需要与和巫统对话，讨论未来的方向。

回到马华，我们需要一位可以重建马华、能内聚全党力量勇拒他人欺凌的领袖。因此，我热切期望，这一次的党选能够催生重振党威、重建马华的精辟政见。

目前，很多党同志都无官职，无需参与州或地方政府发展的决策议会，我们应该有更多时间去构思攸关国家及党的未来方向。

或许，身为马华党员的我们，应该要求已经表态竞选的候选人，更具体地阐述他们的竞选宣言。宣布竞选容易，但要证明竞选的议程则不简单！