MCA publicity chief Datuk Heng Seai Kie has blamed Utusan Malaysia and Perkasa’s strident race rhetoric for Barisan Nasional’s (BN) inability to regain the Chinese community’s support.
She also urged the Home Ministry to act against Utusan Malaysia’s 1Melayu 1Bumi campaign which has now been taken up by Perkasa — despite the non-support of its patron Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Heng told The Malaysian Insider yesterday that the Umno newspaper had been allowed to continuously publish articles inciting racial hatred, therefore damaging national unity.
“We think that if this trend, what has been practiced by Utusan, it will not only victimise all Chinese-based political parties especially in BN, but it will affect national unity. Therefore, we hope that the ministry concerned will take action to protect the interest of our people and country.
“I think it has been dragged on too long otherwise, we won’t have the results of 3/08 or the Sarawak elections where a majority of the BN losses were in the Chinese areas,” she said, referring to Election 2008 and the recent Sarawak state polls.
Utusan Malaysia had called on its owners Umno to spearhead a “1Melayu, 1Bumi” movement involving all Malay parties, while claiming that the DAP was intent on toppling the country’s Malay leadership.
On Friday, MCA deputy publicity chief Loh Seng Kok warned that the “1Melayu, 1 Bumi” movement mooted by the Malay-language daily would create apartheid in Malay-majority Malaysia.
Umno supreme council member Mohd Puad Zarkashi chided Loh for attacking the newspaper’s campaign and told the MCA man to instead redouble efforts into regaining voter support shed by the party since Election 2008.
The Perak chapter of Malay-rights group Perkasa also slammed the MCA for urging a boycott of Utusan Malaysia, claiming the party’s call was a ploy to regain dwindling Chinese support.
Yesterday, Umno deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin also said that Utusan’s views reflected the aspirations of the Malays.
Heng said however that Utusan should stop publishing such racially-charged articles.
“It is high time for them to reposition themselves....on the name patriotism if everybody love Malaysia in whatever we do or say, the interest of the country should be (our highest priority),” she said.
Some government leaders had sought to distance themselves from the newspaper’s clarion call last week, claiming the exhortation made in the Umno-owned daily was the personal opinion of the newspaper’s editors.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak then said the Malay-language newspaper will not deter the government’s commitment to his 1 Malaysia brainchild.
Perkasa patron Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad also spoke out against the idea, and said it would be “disastrous” if it came to fruition.
The elder statesman said such a movement would eventually result in a two-party system, which would be dominated by the Malays and the Chinese on opposing sides of the divide.
Despite their patron’s statement, Perkasa, a Malay rights group, has said it would be willing to lead such a “1Melayu, 1 Bumi” movement.
The group had submitted a four-point memorandum to MCA yesterday to warn it against attacking Utusan Malaysia when it comes to fighting for Malay rights.
Heng, who is also Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister, said that it was time for Perkasa and Utusan to ask themselves the reasons as to why the ruling coalition was losing Chinese votes and support.
“It is now mainly because of these two, all those institutions including the NGOs which have been so racist and issuing racist statements like these and also newspapers, the media which are more racist than Utusan and highlighting on the racist issue like this, which anger the Chinese community.
“So now, we think that it’s high time for institutions like Perkasa or Utusan to instead of accusing others, they should ask themselves what have they contributed to the national unity. They say they are so patriotic and so on, they should ask themselves, by issuing all these statements are they contributing to the national unity? Of course it’s not,” she said.
