By Shen Yee Aun
(Shen Yee Aun is president of NGO Kami Sayangi Selangor and Malaysia Youth Rights Movement)
Shen Yee Aun’s reply to Kee Thuan Chye
Rase Based Politics
Kee Thuan Chye claimed that Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek being a highly educated person with the ability to think he should considering renouncing race-based politics for the good of the nation.
As a former Chief Editor [sic] of The Star , Kee Thuan Chye should know the facts that his own personal urban mentality do not reflect the entire Malaysian mentality as a whole. He should not come out with his conclusion based on his own personal point of view.
A recent opinion poll, funded by The Asia Foundation, of over 1,500 young Malaysian adults aged 18-32 showed sharp differences of views on religion and national identity and the relation between state and religion among the country’s three largest ethnic groups – the Malays, Chinese and Indians. The survey’s results highlighted the strong sense of Malay/Muslim identity and illustrated the sharp inter-ethnic differences that will continue to work against the emergence in Malaysia of a large multi-ethnic, multi-religious political party. Post has forwarded the complete survey data to EAP/MTS.
Sixty-one percent of Malays considered themselves Muslim first, with only 28 percent identifying themselves first as Malaysians. The Chinese put ethnicity first (47 percent), followed by nationality (44 percent) and religion (5 percent). Indians were the most nationalistic, with 75 percent identifying themselves first as Malaysians, followed by their ethnic group (14 percent) and religion (5 percent).
Those who do not understand the method that opinion polls are done would probably argue that 1,500 respondents do not reflect the opinion of 15 million registered voters or 28 million Malaysian citizens. Those who do, however, would know that in a properly conducted poll, 1,500 respondents are all you need to get a plus-minus 5% accuracy result, and even if you increase the number of respondents to 15,000 or more, the accuracy would only improve by 1-2% . (Raja Petra Malaysia Today)
Moreover if you want to ask MCA to abandon their race based politics then you should also ask both DAP and PAS to abandon their race based politics. If you are that highly educated then you will know that there can be a race based and multiracial political party at the same time. Both DAP and PAS knew their political based very well and that is why DAP is contesting against MCA in all the Chinese Majority area and PAS is contesting against UMNO in all the Malay Majority area. Can you even name me even 1 out 222 seats that both DAP & PAS contested out of their political race based area ?
MCA can be a race based political party but under Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek leadership MCA had extended their political social engagement event towards the Indian community after he took over the party throne. Moreover all the MCA service centre in entire Malaysia over the years had continue to serve , help , solve and assist all the races in Malaysia and that include all the MCA New Policy like 1 MCA Medical Fund , 1 MCA Education Loan , 1 MCA Micro Credit Scheme and etc.
You do not need to marry other races in order to be a true Malaysian. In other words MCA do not need to open up their membership to other races in order to prove that they are a multiracial political party in their heart and soul. Is not the marriage that matters but is about your action and mentality that matters. In this case , is not about the membership that matters but MCA service , policy , ideology and actions that matters. You cannot claim that as a Chinese you do not love other races just because you do no marry another person outside from your own race.
In economics , we have to always to look in terms of the Marco and the Micro part of it. And in politics what you are looking in MCA now is just the micro part but if you were to look at the entire Barisan Nasional coalition as a whole then you can never deny the facts that Barisan Nasional is a colourful multiracial political coalition.
If membership is truly an issue then more than 90% of the member in DAP is Chinese and more than 99% of the member in PAS are all Malays. Are they not a race based political party as well ? Why don’t you ask them to renounce their race-based political if is truly for the good of our nation ?
MCA Ministerial Positions
You accused Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek threatened that if BN wins the next general election, then MCA will not accept any ministerial positions if it does not enjoy Chinese support.
His action is not about political threat but is about political pledge. How do you define Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim political pledge where if he loses in the upcoming general election he will retire from the political scene to be a lecturer? Do you consider that as a political threat or a pledge ? Is Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim implying to the nation that if you do not support him to be a minister then he will stop serving the nation ?
What the differences between Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim political pledge? Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek claimed that MCA will not accept any minister position in the government but he never claim that MCA will totally retire from politics to continue to serving the nation and the people even without the minister position compare to Anwar where if he is not the Prime Minister then he will retire as a politician to stop fighting and serving the nation.
Pekingese that wags its tail
You continue to accused MCA as a senior partner in BN with four ministers, the MCA comes across as little more than a toothless Pekingese that wags its tail when UMNO yells. Did Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek shouted when 2 of the UMNO members claim that they wanted to implement HUDUD in our country ? Did MCA President Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek silent up against LYNAS issue ? Did MCA Vice President Gan Ping Siew stand up to suggest that Section 114a evidence act should be review ?
What about Pakatan Rakyat ? Why must DAP bow to PAS in Perak where DAP had won 3 times the number of seats if were to compare with PAS ? DAP had won 18 seats compare to PAS 6 and yet the Chief Minister position have to be from PAS and not even from PKR who had won 7. Where is DAP when PAS ban high heels , lipstick , cinema , alcohol , entertainments outlets , bikini , valentine day and even separating the gender in the cinema , shopping complex paying counter and swimming pool ?
Are DAP not Pekingese that wags its tail to PAS in Pakatan Rakyat coalition ? Even the members , supporters and leaders inside DAP are not Pekingese that wags its tail to Lim Guan Eng where a series of gag order had been release to prevent them from speaking out and those who go against him will be sacked by the party.
Education
According to Kee Thuan Chye , Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek is impotent within BN because MCA stood impotently and sulked during those years of non-Government recognition in Tar College and have fail to pressed the Government to give the recognition that would, in turn, have allowed those KTAR graduates to apply for government jobs or pursue further studies at Malaysian public universities.
Firstly , is not fair for Kee Thuan Chye to dig out the past because Pakatan Rakyat Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had transferred out a Malay school headmaster to replace the Chinese in the Chinese school when he was the Education Minister of Malaysia back then.
Secondly , even if you want to claim that MCA had fail to get government recognition over the years therefore MCA is impotent that was MCA before Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek. TAR College get its recognition during his time as the President of MCA. That just deny your facts that he is impotent in Barisan Nasional where he had already proven he is potent enough to get us the recognition when all the previous MCA President had failed to do so.
Thirdly , it is unfair to say that it is just about getting the Chinese votes because the King of Political promises to get the voter votes will be no other than Pakatan Rakyat themselves where they continue to throw out their sweet policy and promises in order to get the votes of the voters. The only differences will be MCA had already get out TAR college recognised and even upgraded to the University status compare to Pakatan Rakyat that had fail to show that all their promises can be implemented. Moreover , recently Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim had claimed that Manifesto is not a promise. In this case even if MCA is doing it for the votes we had successfully delivered our promise towards the Chinese community. We wanted votes we deliver. Pakatan Rakyat wanted votes they will just promise and when they fail to fulfil their promises they end up claiming manifesto is not a promise.
I knew that you are trying to say MCA started TAR College because many Chinese fail to enter to our Public University in the past but on the other side at least credit have to give to MCA where they never give excuses and find a way to produce more affordable education to all the Chinese in our country. What about Pakatan Rakyat? After Mac 2008 where Pakatan Rakyat had given the mandate to rule Kedah and they uses RM 320 million to build an Islamic University where their state yearly is only RM 340 million back then. If PAS can build an Islamic University in Kedah why cant PKR and DAP build at least a college for the Chinese and Indians in Selangor and Penang ? At least MCA do took the effort to build a college for the Chinese.
What about Anwar? When Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek ask him more than 5 times in the press of how many Chinese school he will build after taking over Putrajaya and he dare not even answer that he will build even ONE CHINESE SCHOOL. If there flaws and weakness in MCA regarding education issue then please compare it back with Pakatan Rakyat and you will know that who will end up coming out worst and last in education issue.
Even that right after Mac 2008 MCA under the potent leadership of Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek had play an effective role where more than 88 % of the Chinese every year manage to enter to the public university and now all the Chinese who get 9A plus in their SPM will automatically get their entrance and scholarship by the government.
BERSIH
You quoted Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek statement where he claim he muster can up 50,000 MCA members to demonstrate but he fail to do so. If you are just being selective in quoting his statement that you are basically being very bias where did you quote him saying that MCA is against demonstration and public rally that will destabilized our country?
You contradicts with Kelantan PAS Chief Minister where you claim those BERSIH supporter never receive a single cent but he already admit he do pay the protester from Kelantan to travel to KL to protest. So the one claiming that Pakatan Rakyat do pay their members or people to the rally is no other than your Pakatan Rakyat senior leader.
You can testify that there were thousands of Chinese present – and they were ordinary citizens, not people with political affiliations. What you failed to testify is that DAP do mobilize and send out instruction to every single division and branches in entire Malaysia to get their member and supporter out to the street to protest and rally.
For sure I wont deny that facts that there are also ordinary Malaysian who went out to the street being paid but you can never deny the facts where the Organizer ( BERSIH ) and the Chairman Ambiga alrady admit that BERSIH did receive funding from International Fund. For you BERSIH is about fair election but for the foreign investor ( NED ) is about destabilizing our country. They had a good track record of sponsoring all the chaotic country in the world to destabilize the country like Rusia , Thailand , Egypt and etc etc. Their official website annual report already proven that they had funded BERSIH.
Please do not talk about fair election where PKR themselves had receive more than 160 internal election fraud and official complaint during their last internal election. How can they shout for a fair election where in reality they had failed to prove that they can organize a fair and clear election in their own political party ?
You only highlighted the part where Najib and his cohorts committed all those ruthless acts against Bersih 2.0. Why you dare not mention about BERISH 3.0 even once in article? Why? I thought that was supposed to be the latest BERSIH rally? Are you trying to cover the facts of protester brutality against our police? Are you trying to deny the facts where both Anwar and Azmin had risk our normal citizen life to break through the police barricade ? Are you trying to run away where BERSIH is actually not a peaceful assembly ?
HUDUD
If DAP can claim that a vote for MCA is a vote for UMNO then why cant MCA claim that a vote for DAP is also a vote for PAS? And a vote for PAS is surely a vote for Islamic state where PAS President Hadi Awang already said nobody could stop them from implementing HUDUD and HUDUD is even in PAS constitution. That is part of their main political struggle. Exposing the reality of truth is not a threat to the non-Muslims community.
Regarding Ayub Rahmat calling for Hudud to be implemented Datuk Chua Tee Yeong already reply where MCA will pull out from the coalition if Barisan Nasional government were to ever implement Hudud. If you would like to come out with such comparison then we compare faily. The head of Barisan Nasional Najib already pledge that he will not push for Hudud where the head of Pakatan Rakyat Anwar already claim that he personally supported Hudud. Next , you should compare UMNO and PAS political struggle. Nothing in UMNO party constitution is about fighting to implement Hudud if were to compare with PAS. Then there only 2 leaders from UMNO that you can point out that they shouted for Hudud where if were to compare to every single leaders and members of PAS that is 100% of all them supporting Hudud.
What about UMNO leading Barisan Nasional to bring Kelantan PAS government to court when they want to implement Hudud in Kelantan back then? If you compare properly then you will know the answer of who is the real fighter and supporter of Hudud.
Muzakarah
Why should MCA or Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek should voice out where UMNO is trying to unite the Malay community ? Why should we fight against Unity ? Even if it is wrong then what did DAP did when some of the PAS leader do agree with the Muzakarah plan ?
Apologize
Kee Thuan Chye said that DAP Manohoran should be forgiven because he had apologize for his insulting remarks against Dato Lee Chong Wei. I hope Kee Thuan Chye can be a fair person in terms of political apology where if Manoharan should be forgiven then all the Pakatan Rakyat leaders and suporters should also forgive Najib and Datuk Seri Dr Soi Lek where they had already apologize for their own mistake. Why should the rakyat forgive Manoharan just because he apologize and he is from Pakatan Rakyat and they Rakyat should not forgive both Najb and Chua Soi Lek where they had already apologize just because they are not from Pakatan Rakyat?
The Star
He claim that MCA is the major owner of The Star, shouldn’t you adopt a non-involvement policy? I thought he was the former Chief Editor [sic] of The Star? What have you done to adopt a non-involvement policy when you was the Chief Editor back then?
Politicize sports
You claim that if sports should not be politicized, why were you [Chua Soi Lek] the one giving out the cheques to Chong Wei and Pandalela? He claim that sports should not be politicized when he was referring to Manoharan insulting remarks against our sportsmen. He never claim that Lim Guan Eng giving out cheque to Dato Lee Chong Wei is a form of politicking sports. If given out cheques to Chong Wei is a form of politicking sports then you should ask question Lim Guan Eng why did he give out cheque to Lee Chong Wei ? You should also ask him why should there be double standard in rewarding where Pandelela was not rewarded? Is it because DAP do not need the Sarawakian or the women votes?
Are you trying to say when Lim Guan Eng rewarding Lee Chong Wei he is not politicking sports but when MCA rewarded both Lee Chong Wei and Pandelala then they are politicking sports ? Btw , who are the one that started rewarding our Olympic contributor first? It was no other than DAP Lim Guan Eng himself.
Section 114A
You should also question how come this evidence act can pass through just in less than half of the day in Parliament and not even a single MP from Pakatan Rakyat that the Rakyat had voted them to call for a block voting in the parliament. Why only they start to make noise right after the right was amended ? The Rakyat do not only vote for Pakatan Rakyat to make noise outside the parliament but also to stand up for them inside the parliament.
Janji Ditepati
At least Barisan Nasional is united to come out with our Independence theme where if it were to compare to Pakatan Rakyat where earlier they do come out with 4 different Independence theme. If you personally thinks that Janji Ditepati is a political word then what about Janji Demokrasi that is organized by Pakatan Rakyat during the Independence Day? So are you saying that Pakatan Rakyat can use the word Janji and is not a political word but when Barisan Nasional uses it then it is a political word?
This will be my open debate challenge to Kee Thuan Chye if you want to go on comparing on between BN or PR is better.
Source: ‘SYA Reply to Kee Thuan Chye Open Letter to Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek’ in Shen Yee Aun’s blog.
Click 2x to read
Helen Ang 
What can I say? KTC hoodwinking the public into buying his two bullshit books when all he does is bullshit & bullshit some more. And those who believe all the bullshit lock, stock & barrel, you don’t know if you wanna laugh at their stupidity or cry at their naivety
I still think Kee will have Shen for breakfast.
I don’t have a bloody idea who SYA is but having taken a peek in KTC’s book, you’d have the impression he’d walk all over SYA any place, any time. That said, being a good writer is no guarantee you’d be a good orator as well. Consider that you’ll have to rebutt arguments within a constrained time frame & having too deal with an unpredictable crowd.
I remembered watching the debate between Anwar Ibrahim & Shabery Chik a few years back. You’d think with his experience, charisma etc, AI would blow SC away. Instead SC held his own & scored some points too. I wouldnt mind seeing KJ taking on say Nurul maybe?
KTC, the ball is in our court….kick it if you have balls
Kak Helen,
Ironinya tentang parti-parti yang ada di tanah air yang bertuah ini ialah parti yang ada perkataan demokratik pada namanya adalah merupakan parti yang paling lama dikuasai oleh satu pihak saja. Sebaliknya parti yang tidak ada perkataan demokratik macam MIC/MCA sudahpun bertukar pucuk kepimpinan.
The difference between BN and Pakatan supporters… BN’s
argument are based on facts where else Pakatan’s argument are merely based on hearsay or fabricated… BN’s janji ditepati, Pakatan’s janji tinggal janji, hahaha…
You know if KTC say listen listen listen to Sya everyone will clap hand but it is the other way around and I Think everyone will vilify Sya till the world ends
Only those who want to use race and religion to divide Malaysians will want to harp on such issues.
As far as race is concerned, there is nothing one can do about it!
You are born with it!!!!
Unless, of course, like one famous Mamak, who somehow completely metamorphose into a Malay and Muslim!!!!
Thereby deserting his own ancestry.
And somehow during his long reign, he somehow got the idea that this country has a Malay/Muslim majority and if one can latch on to them, then one will have eternal power.
And with it eternal wealth as well!!!!!
And that’s how evil was hatched!
He was proved correct until this very day!!!!!!
And many of his victims not only sing his praises but adore him as well!
Willing prey, willing predator???
Now, back to religion.
Religion is something very private.
It’s between one’s God and oneself.
And as been said above, it is also being hijacked by some enterprising Mamak for his own ends.
The thieving still goes on unabated.
That’s the sad legacy of this nation.
And its hapless citizens!!!!!!!!
Shen Yee Aun – you should send your reply to an English Teacher for correction first before posting it up here and you must be joking by challenging KTC to a debate!!
Grammar aside, what makes you think that SYA is not up to debating KTC?