What is most significant about the “policy” statements the MCA and Gerakan Presidents at their respective MCA Johor State Convention and the Gerakan national delegates’ conference today is not what they said but what they did not say.
MCA President Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai brushed off the possibility of a “one to one” fight between the Opposition and the Barisan Nasional in the next national general elections as “empty talk” although this is a prospect MCA leaders fear most – not that they are comfortable with other political scenarios in the 14GE to make MCA more than a “7/11” political party.
Gerakan President Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong struck a “holier than thou” stance and railed against former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad for “dabbling in unhealthy politics” with the statement that the Barisan Nasional government in three states of Perak, Terengganu and Johor could fall before the general election as a small change in state assemblymen could topple the BN state governments.
Mah suffered from an early case of amnesia when he said that a change in the top leadership and administration of a state could only be determined by a process of democracy via an election, and not by getting elected representatives to switch camp or entice them to defect – forgetting how Barisan Nasional toppled the Pakatan Rakyat state government in Perak under Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin as Mentri Besar in February 2009 by engineering a defection PR State Assembly members.
But what is more important is not their verbal gymnastics but their silence on the claim by the UMNO and Barisan Nasional secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor that BN has arrived at a consensus regarding PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang’s private members bill.
What is this Barisan Nasional “consensus” on Hadi’s private member’s bill?
Low-level MCA and Gerakan underlings cast doubts that such a Barisan Nasional “consensus” on Hadi’s private member’s bill had been reached at the BN Supreme Council meeting three Fridays ago, but the MCA and Gerakan Presidents have studiously and wisely held their tongue.
Even when Adnan subsequently made the nonsensical clarification that what he meant by the BN “consensus” was that whatever the decision the coalition made “must be on the basis of consensus of all parties”, both MCA and Gerakan Presidents continued to keep their silence and dared not repeat the promises made by MCA and Gerakan in the recent Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections that the BN “consensus” will be restored!
It is still fresh in everyone’s mind that the Barisan Nasional “consensus” was violated and vitiated in the May meeting of Parliament when UMNO Ministers unilaterally and arbitrarily fast-tracked the PAS President’s private member’s bill in Parliament without consultation or reference to the other BN component parties – in reckless disregard of the 43-year BN stand and consensus that PAS’ hudud proposal was not appropriate for Malaysia’s plural society, and against the fundamental provisions of the 1957 Merdeka Constitution and 1963 Malaysia Agreement.
Is there now a new Barisan Nasional consensus to agree to the fast-tracking of Hadi’s private member’s bill in the October/November budget meeting of Parliament, with MCA and Gerakan even agreeing to it, or is this the stand only of UMNO – one of the 13 BN component parties?
If there is no new Barisan Nasional “consensus” among the 13 BN component parties to fast-track Hadi’s private member’s bill in the October/November Parliament, then Hadi’s private member’s bill can only be given priority if UMNO ride rough-shod over the objections of the other 12 BN component parties.
Did the other 12 other BN component parties, including MCA and Gerakan, make it clear to UMNO at the BN Supreme Council meeting three Fridays ago that the Barisan Nasional Federal government would collapse and disintegrate if UMNO unilaterally and arbitrarily goes ahead to fast-track Hadi’s private member’s bill in the October/November meeting of Parliament, when there is no BN “consensus” for such a parliamentary action by UMNO Ministers?
Or has Barisan Nasional consensus degenerated from the original meaning of agreement by all 13 BN component parties into a perverted and corrupt version of what is unilaterally and arbitrarily decided by UMNO even in the face of objection by the other 12 BN component parties?
Lets us hear from the leaders of of all the 13 component BN parties!
(Speech at the Kluang DAP 50th Anniversary Dinner in Kluang on Saturday, 8th October 2016 at 8 pm)