MCA was formed on 27 Feb 1949. So this year in 2013, it is 64 years old.
The party held an early celebration of its birthday two days ago last Saturday (photo below).
MCA was established in 1949 to meet the following objectives:
- promote and maintain better relationships among the various races in Malaya,
- safeguard the interest and welfare of the Chinese socially, economically and politically through legal and constitutional means,
- maintain law and order so that Malaya will achieve peaceful and orderly progress
Source: Tan Cheng Lock papers (National Archives)
A piece of trivia: In March 1958, Dr Lim Chong Eu defeated the 75-year-old Tun Tan Cheng Lock, the MCA founder, for the party presidency.
Another factoid: Tun Tan Siew Sin – Cheng Lock’s son – was a long-serving Finance Minister from 1959 to 1974, the year the BN was created.
So how has MCA fared?
In the first federal election held in August 1955, many of the 15 MCA candidates stood in predominantly Malay areas against Malay opponents and won with handsome majorities.
MIC had earlier teamed up with MCA and Umno in April of the same year to form the Alliance coalition.
Among the MCA’s early successes was the acquisition of citizenship for the Chinese. In 1950, there were about 3,275,000 federal citizens, of whom some 730,000 were non-Malays.
In 1953, an estimated 4,139,000 persons acquired Malayan citizenship by operation of law, with Chinese making up 1,157,000 of the total.
The number of non-Malays who acquired citizenship through registration – the “one million” figure recently cited by Dr M in his comment on the ongoing Sabah RCI – is tabulated in the table below.
Concerning the MCA’s primary objective as stated at the time of its birth, i.e. “to promote and maintain better relationships among the various races” in the country, how well do you think the party has done?
We might also want take our measure based on the performance of Suara MCA aka The Star.
Chinese dead set against Umno
Raja Petra wrote in his column yesterday:
<Quote>
“The Chinese have made it very clear that they are going to vote ABU — anything but Umno. The Indians, to a certain extent, have said the same thing, although not as high a percentage as the Chinese. In the last general election, MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP won a total of only 20 seats (PPP zero) out of 222 Parliamentary seats. That was less than 10%.
This time around, they may be reduced to just 10 seats in total, or less than 5% of the seats in Parliament. Never mind what Barisan Nasional, Umno or Najib does, this is not going to change things one bit. MIC, Gerakan and PPP are going to get totally wiped out while MCA may be reduced to just 10 seats.
This means they need to depend on just Umno and the East Malaysian members of Barisan Nasional to stay in power. Even then they may be able to do so with only 110-120 seats.
Hence Umno can forget about the non-Umno parties in West Malaysia (MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP). Whatever they say and do is not going to save the day. The only thing that can save Umno would be the Malay votes — that determine roughly two-thirds of the seats in West Malaysia.
And that is why what they are doing/saying is not to win the hearts and mind of the Chinese and Indian voters. It is too late to win the hearts and minds of the Chinese and Indian voters. They need to win the hearts and minds of the Malay voters. And to do that they need to do and say what they are currently doing and saying.
While this may upset the Chinese and Indians, who are not going to vote for Umno anyway, it pacifies the Malays. And it is the Malays they want to pacify, not the Chinese and Indians, who have made it very clear they are not going to vote Barisan Nasional or Umno come hell or high water.”
<Unquote>
Why the MCA destructive behaviour?
Concerning the second objective of MCA which is “to safeguard the interest and welfare of the Chinese socially, economically and politically”, what are the thoughts really crossing the MCA’s mind now?
How does one explain The Scissors snipping and snipping and snipping away at the BN ever since the 2008 tsunami? Why does the MCA newspaper seem to favour its rival? (Refer Starwatch.)
I don’t think Chua Soi Lek was joking when he implied that Ong Tee Keat would jump ship.
More recently, Stanley Koh the former head of the MCA research unit, wrote: “It is well known in MCA circles that hordes of members have deserted the party without handing in their resignations”.
MCA ex-vice president Jimmy Chua Jui Meng was reported as saying more or less the same thing, which is that although the MCA members haven’t handed in their resignations as yet but many have already signed up with the opposition parties.
Chua Jui Meng was quoted as saying, “I can tell you, the exodus is real, it is huge and the bulk of it will take place soon after GE-13.”
It would appear that there is a method behind The Star freakiness. This explanation would certainly make sense of the paper’s covert support for the DAP 2.0 politicians.
Helen Ang 
yesterday, I had the whole journalism class and lecturer in a state of shock, when we were discussing about ‘agenda making’, they started to talk about no neutral papers in M’sia bla bla bla… when one fella started naming the pro government papers, I interrupted and said, “the gunting is unique, pro dap but funded by mca” – they went jaw drop… alamak (depa baru tau)
Obviously they’re not this site’s regular visitor like you.
The columnist of Star of dubious journalism quality.
Right now, i only bother to read Joceline’s article, and the occasional Insight Down. Like you point out, the journalists in The Star are bangsa/jerusubang centric cannot relate to mainstream Malaysia. You have columnists talk about Singapore, China, but not of mainstream Malaysia like in Sabak Bernam.
States outside Subang does not seem on the radar. Issues affecting normal Malaysian do not seem to be of interest either. Even its Malay journalists like Karim Raslan (another fake Malay) and Marina Mahathir are mundane and its all about their eccentric anglophile topics.
Even its lifestyle section talks about foreign topics, people, artists and food. I can imagine Star journalists eating only at Alexis and couture cafes, and abhor the simple nasi lemak.
At least reading Malay MSM you get the pulse of ordinary Malaysians, the latest Malay bands, the best mee rebus stall, read about Upin Ipin, the gotong royong. While NST journalists engage in genuine national issues and mainstream politics, though I admit the Kalimullah years have destroyed my trust in NST but I will buy NST for my English reads.
It’s sad that the DAPsters and anglophiles, so infused with hate, would boycott the MSM completely and go for a steady diet of only The Star, Malaysiakini and watch foreign channels on Astro. Where do you think you get to read about normal Malaysians? It’s in RTM, TV3 and Berita Harian.
I do not support Pakatan but I do read Shuzheng, Malaysiakini (i am familiar what Helen writes about in her Mkini years), Harakah along with the MSM to get as much perspectives as as possible on many issues. Pretty sad that the DAPsters who claim they are open minded are actually like frog under the coconut shell.
they are open minded when it comes to insulting people with racial overtones and smut, dirty words.
After seeing the true colours of the DAP, PKR and Pas leaders, any sane and right-thinking Malay will not vote for the Pakatan. Why? Because Pakatan is 100 times worse than the so-called hated BN.
tapi masih banyak yg insane…undi pakatoons for the sake of Asal Bukan Umno or ABCD Asal Bukan Cap Dacing katanya, bila ditanya kenapa – itu jawapannya. tanya kebaikan pakatoons – tak dak jawapan. bengong tinggi langit.
One of the reason why Mca was able to enjoy the Muslim’s support for more than 50 years, including post 513 period, is because Muslims truly believed that Mca has never had any intention (neither overtly nor covertly) to take PJ/KL for the Lord Buddha.
Only lately, one or two religious bigotry among them are taken in by the the false notion that they could gain more ground if they add in religious factor into the equation. Hopefully they will see light at the end of the tunnel and the pipe dream become reality.
MCA is beginning to absorb Jerusubang. Can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
The party website kept their Christmas message up as a top page banner for a full month.
You forgot the Chinese have supported MCA & BN most of these years, up to the 11th GE. In the 1970s to 2000s, the trend of most Chinese & Indians were to BN.
In 1999, it was the Chinese & Indian voters who saved BN from losing more seats to the opposition. In 2004, they helped give the best electoral result to Badawi. However, Badawi did not pull through the reforms promised, and this alienated a lot of people that had voted BN.
You are wrong. The support of Chinese to BN was at most 50 to 60% in the good time. Generally the Chinese vote was evenly split and only during certain elections (1999 and 1995) I think Chinese support clearly exceed 50%
Calvin,
Yup. Contrary to what many chinese would want to believe, it was not chinese vote that safe BN or UMNO in 1999. The truth is that even as UMNO in turmoil following the sacking of Anwar in 1998, it still managed to get the lion share of malay votes.
Actually the reason is quite simple. Despite its wart and all, Malays in general feel that only UMNO is powerful enough to ensure Malay controlling the politics. No other Malay based party come close to UMNO’s strengh or influence. I am not talking about PAS as PKR is not accepted as a Malay based party.
This is not to say that UMNO is perfect. it has quite a share of weaknesses. But in all sincerity, anytime i would choose UMNO over PAS or PKR. As for DAP, choosing its candidate is tantamount to endorsing “yahudi” to overlord Malays.
The more posturing DAP does, the more damage it causes to its PKR and PAS allies.
Also, I don’t know if they are trying to be clever or just plainly insult Malays with their recent actions.
This whole Zairil/CEC plus Allah issue would give the Malays a lot to think about. Please don’t tell me they honestly think Malays are going to forget the land deals with PAS scandal because of those issues though.
JohnyMalaya,
“in 1999……”. What many tend to overlook is that despite at its weakest time, UMNO still manages to get the sizable Malay votes. at the very least half of malay voters at its weakest time.
in 2008, regarded as tsunami in politics by many, UMNO still won a considerable 78 seats, a manifestation of its influence despite relentless attack by DAP.
Malays are changing too. Goodwill needs to be continously nurtured. As such, some places with Malay majority are no longer safe for MCA or MIC. which is why UMNO wants pasir panjang as the constituent insist on Malay candidate. Nizar won simply because he is a muslim while his opponent is an Indian of Hindiu faith. I dare say Hindraf factor did influencethe malays to reject the MIC candidate.
Helen, the big issue in the Tamil media is how Pakatan Selangor stopped the temple from operating and ringing its bells after 6pm. Only after the media exposure did the Kajang Council rescind the orders. With the temple demolition and now prayers ban, I don’t think many Indians would bother to support PR in Selangor, expect the hard core Christian Evangalist-Jerusubangite hybrid.
I’ve been saying post GE we’re looking at Malay vs Chinese-Christian scenario.
as long the chinese vote collectively , it will the malay vs chinese.
the “chinese have been elegently silent on the ‘Allah’ issue.
I am not overly concern about DAP. But I am feeling uneasy with MCA and Gerakan (MCA-G). If as Helen has consistently highlighted that majority of those in The STAR are inclined to the other side, what can stop us to assume the same for MCA-G, its owner? Anyway, DAP and MCA-G are also fighting for the same agenda such as more vernacular schools, against hudud and Islamic state, meritocracy, abolishing NEP etc.
This will be my prediction after GE 13. MCA-G will merge with DAP. However, a new party MCA Baru will be formed to fight for the ideals of the old MCA. I must be dreaming!
No need to merge. The members will simply migrate (crossover) and leave MCA a rump entity, like Yugoslavia.
like “di mana ada gula, di situ ada semut”… :)