Most mortifying mistake of MCA General Assembly was not the resolution that BN dissolves, but its craven and cowardly failure to repudiate Najib for the 1MDB scandal which turned Malaysia into a global kleptocracy

It must be the most humiliating experience of the MCA in its 69-year history – worse than the 2103 General Election when it became a 7/11 politcal party, or the 2018 general election, when it degenerated into a mosquito party winning only one parliamentary seat – and as UMNO President Datuk Zahid Hamidi caustically reminded yesterday, a victory based on support of Malay voters!

In the last two days, whatever is left of MCA pride and dignity were dragged over the coals by UMNO leaders, with Zahid reminding MCA to know its place; UMNO Deputy President Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan urging MCA to leave Barisan Nasional (BN) immediately, remarking that he would be “very thankful” if MCA quits BN as “We cannot afford to have a burdensome friend when we are already having a tough time, politically” while even the UMNO-owned Malay daily Utusan Malaysia also joined in the fray, lashing out at MCA for overstepping its authority, branding the party a “weakling” and insignificant member of the former ruling coalition.

But the most mortifying mistake of last Sunday’s MCA General Assembly was not the resolution that BN dissolves, but its craven and cowardly failure to repudiate former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for the monstrous 1MDB corruption and money-laundering scandal which turned Malaysia into a global kleptocracy.

I had tried to salvage what was left of the dignity of MCA with a public reminder that the new MCA President, Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, should lead the entire MCA leadership to apologise to all Malaysians at the MCA General Assembly for the MCA’s past crimes of aiding and abetting Najib in the 1MDB scandal and making Malaysia a global kleptocracy in the eyes of the world.

I had publicly suggested that the MCA delegates should demand that the former and present MCA Presidents, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and Wee Ka Siong, explain why as Ministers in the Najib Cabinet, they had allowed the 1MDB scandal to escalate, even after the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) had filed its largest kleptocratic litigation to forfeit US$1.7 billion of 1MDB-linked assets out of some US$5.4 billion money-laundered through the US financial system and what they knew about the special relationship between the two 1MDB masterminds – Najib and fugitive financier Jho Low.

Unfortunately, no MCA delegate was public-spirited enough to redeem the party’s dignity or the speak up for the nation by condemning Najib for the 1MDB scandal as well as the MCA leadership for their role in aiding and abetting a scandal which turned Malaysia into a global kleptocracy.

MCA can recover from the attacks of UMNO leaders, however legitimate and justified, but it can never recover from its craven and cowardly failure to repudiate Najib for the monstrous 1MDB scandal which brought to Malaysia to the international infamy, ignominy and iniquity of a global kleptocracy.