James Chin says a decades-long failure to defend the community’s interests caused Chinese voters to move on from MCA, and they were unlikely to go back soon.
00:01Chinese support for MCA will be gone for at least another decade, regardless of which coalition it joins or how it rebrands, says a political analyst.
00:11James Chin of the University of Tasmania said the Chinese community shifted its support decisively to the AP from 2013 onwards,
00:19after decades of unmet expectations of MCA since the country gained independence.
00:25He was commenting on remarks by Sungai Pitani MCA chief Cheng Zhu Choi, who said the party should leave Barisan Nacional and rebuild itself as an independent opposition focused on Chinese voters.
00:38Asked if an independent MCA could still outperform Garakhan on Chinese community issues, Chin said Garakhan is in an even worse position due to its ties with PAS.
00:48Another analyst, O A Sun of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said MCA's image problem goes beyond electoral performance or coalition alignment.
00:57He cited Chinese voters' perception of MCA as corrupt and subservient to UMNO, remaining silent about UMNO's excesses in order to stay corrupt.
01:06O contrasted this with rising criticism of the DAP, which some see as too quiet on Chinese issues, but also view as making necessary compromises to sustain the current government, seen as preferable to a PAS dominated alternative.
