Why is DAP blamed for Ka Tingï¿½s ï¿½Umno is bully in Barisan Nasionalï¿½ speech in MCA yesterday?

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Media Statement by Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Sunday, 19^th October 2008:
Why is DAP blamed for Ka Tingï¿½s ï¿½Umno is bully in Barisan Nasionalï¿½ speech at MCA General Assembly yesterday?

Why is the DAP blamed for the outgoing MCA President, Datuk Seri Ong Ka Tingï¿½s ï¿½Umno is bully in Barisan Nasionalï¿½ speech at the MCA General Assembly opening ceremony yesterday?

Ongï¿½s speech led to denials by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi resulting in newspaper frontpage headlines like ï¿½UMNO IS NO BULLYï¿½ (New Sunday Times) and ï¿½Umno bukan pembuli: PMï¿½ (Berita Minggu), who instead blamed the DAP for ï¿½stirring up the issue to see the split of the MCA or Gerakanï¿½ as well as Hindraf for targetting the MIC.

Abdullah caught everyone by surprise by his bald denial.

He said Umno ï¿½is not a ï¿½bullyï¿½ partyï¿½ or many component parties would have left BN by now, and asked:

ï¿½Do you think Ka Ting allows himself to be bullied? You think (MIC president) Samy (Vellu) can be bullied? You think (Gerakan president Dr. Koh) Tsu Koon wants to be bullied?ï¿½

Abdullah has forgotten an elementary rule of life ï¿½ ï¿½donï¿½t ask if you donï¿½t want the answerï¿½!

Does he really want the answer to that loaded question of his? Donï¿½t have to ask the Malaysian public. Just ask the MCA, Gerakan and MIC delegates or members through secret ballot whether they think their leaders have been bullied by Umno in Barisan Nasional, and I have no doubt that the answer would be a resounding and thundering ï¿½yesï¿½!

In fact, one of the saddest political episodes of Barisan Nasional post-March 8 ï¿½political tsunamiï¿½ is the response of the leaders of the BN component parties when asked by the press for their response to Abdullahï¿½s ï¿½Umno is no bullyï¿½ response.

Neither Tsu Koon nor Samy Vellu dared to fully back up Ka Ting, who himself backed off subsequently by saying that he never said Umno is a bully!

What I find most disturbing is Abdullahï¿½s statement: ï¿½People say that Umno is a party that likes to bully. I actually have no idea how to bully. There is no such thing as bullying.ï¿½

I believe Abdullah was speaking the truth that there is not a bone of a bully in him.

That is what is frightening. After half-a-century of Umno political hegemony, Umno bullying in BN has become so institutionalized to perpetuate and increasingly aggravate such travesty of ï¿½power sharingï¿½, even though the top No. 1 UMNO leader like Abdullah does not know how to be a bully!

There is no need for the top No. 1 or No. 2 Umno leader to be a bully, when the UMNO bullies at the various hierarchies of the party are allowed a field day!

Abdullahï¿½s denial about Umno bullying in BN does not bear scrutiny ï¿½ as there is a long catalogue from the recent past, whether the keris-wielding by Umno Youth leader and Education Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein or the offensive and insensitive statements by the Deputy Umno Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin or to the most recent times, such as Umno Bukit Bendera division chairman, Ahmad Ismailï¿½s ï¿½Chinese are penumpangï¿½ outburst or the tearing up of Tsu Koonï¿½s photograph by Penang Umno leaders.

In fact, Abdullah gave an illustration of the irrelevance of the views of top leaders of MCA and other BN leaders yesterday when he summarily dismissed the MCA Presidentï¿½s call for a review of the Internal Security Act, as it is ï¿½obsolete and should be replaced with one that is not subject to abuse or cause people to feel insecureï¿½.

Last week, the 37th Gerakan national delegates conference also adopted a resolution calling for a review of the ISA.

If the Barisan Nasional is a coalition of equals, and Umno is not a bully, will the considered views of leaders of BN component parties and the resolutions of their party conferences be dismissed so derisively and summarily, like the call for the review of the ISA?

What happened yesterday at the MCA General Assembly was doubly pathetic:

ï¿½ firstly, no leader of the BN component parties dared to stand up to admit boldly about Umno being a bully which should end it ï¿½bullyï¿½ ways in BN; and

ï¿½ secondly, none of them dared to correct Abdullah by pointing out that was most unfair to use the DAP as a ï¿½scapegoatï¿½ for the public perception that MCA, Gerakan and the other BN component parties were being bullied by Umno when it represented the true situation.

Maybe the MCA delegates in their debate in the 55th MCA General Assembly would dare to speak up what their leaders have failed to do about the truth of Umno being a bully in BN and the need to end such lop-sided power relationship in the BN coalition.

Be that as it may, it is quite obvious from the MCA party election results that Ong Ka Ting was well-advised to withdraw from the MCA presidential contest, for he would have been defeated ï¿½ and quite decisively - had he decided to defend his post as MCA President.

* Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor