Tee Keat says Soi Lek backed ‘ketuanan Melayu’

Malaysian Insider

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
December 09, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 9 — Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat accused Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek today of previously supporting the concept of “ketuanan Melayu”, contradicting the party’s fiery rhetoric now against Umno.

He said Dr Chua also remained subservient to Umno.

Ong, who was ousted as MCA leader this year by Dr Chua, said he was “surprised” and “puzzled” by his rival’s recent call for a ban on terms like “ketuanan Melayu” and censuring Umno for approving government policies during its supreme council meetings.

He claimed that Dr Chua’s firebrand views now contradicted his past statements on similar issues.

Ong alleged that Dr Chua’s remarks at last week’s Barisan Nasional (BN) convention were not only a distinct U-turn from the MCA chief’s past views, they also mirrored Ong’s stand when he was party chief.

“Firstly, on the issue of ‘ketuanan Melayu” (Malay supremacy) he mentioned about the master-slave relationship. I brought this up as early as 2008 when I was interviewed by Bernama, and of course I was under fire back then.

“But at the same time I can still remember some time back he (Dr Chua) himself was supportive of ketuanan Melayu. Especially when he made a statement in a front-page report of Utusan, which was given wide coverage,” said Ong today.

The Pandan MP demanded Dr Chua explain his change of heart, saying that MCA members knew about the “real” stand of some of its top leaders regarding the matter.

“Now all of the sudden he makes such a stand, of course that has taken me by surprise. At least when I expressed my view, I did so through the proper channels. Of course I don’t mean to say that he couldn’t voice his concern but what really surprised me was on the same subject matter, not too long along you were saying something different, and you seem to have made a U-turn and that you choose to do it glaringly, in the open. Which one is your real stand? Please state.”

Dr Chua had told his Umno allies that there should not be a “big brother, small brother” system in the ruling pact.

In his speech at the BN convention, Dr Chua had made direct references to Umno as he reminded the ruling party that the MCA, and all other component parties, deserved to receive equal recognition as coalition partners.

The veteran politician even took a direct swipe at Umno by pointing out that the MCA was not in agreement with how important government policy decisions were made during Umno supreme council meetings instead in the Cabinet.

The MCA president’s remarks were not well received by many Umno leaders, with Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein saying yesterday that Dr Chua had upset a number of leaders last weekend with his remarks.

Hishammuddin had said that many had expressed their dissatisfaction that the straight-talking MCA president had used the Barisan Nasional convention over the weekend as a platform to air his grouses against Umno.

Ong also accused Dr Chua today of abandoning several proposals which Ong had pushed for during his tenure as MCA president.

“When I was MCA president, I brought up such suggestions to BN, to have multi-party participation in the BN grassroots network, especially the appointment of BN divisional chiefs.

“MCA brought up such a proposal and that was adopted by BN ... whereby if a constituency is represented by the MCA or any component party, the BN divisional chairmanship should go to the same party, and that was accepted. If the candidate won, the BN MP should himself be BN division chairman. If he lost, the chairmanship should go to the division chief of the component party,” explained the Pandan MP.

Ong claimed that the implementation of the proposal had been “watered down” when Dr Chua took over the MCA leadership, suggesting that despite the MCA president’s apparent boldness in defending the MCA’s rights, the latter was still subservient to Umno.

“Chua somehow, without the knowledge of grassroots, had overturned this decision ...and at the end of the day, the overwhelming majority of the divisional chairmanship still goes to Umno and of course that was done with his (Dr Chua’s) full knowledge, his consent as well. This could only be done at the BN supreme council level, and I was no longer in the council (when the decision was overturned),” said the one-time transport minister.