Media statement by Teresa Kok Suh Sim in Sri Aman on Thursday, 14^th April 2011:

Kong Cho Ha -- a confused, fear-mongering MCA Secretary-General still in denial of his and MCA's juvenile race-based politics

I repeat my call to MCA Secretary General and Transport Minister Kong Cho Ha to wake up from his narrow race-based politics and urge him to retract his statement that the Chinese community should be contented with how well they are being treated by Barisan Nasional (BN) Sarawak as a sign of his remorse.

Last Sunday, Kong had stated that the Chinese in Sarawak should actually be contented and grateful for the job opportunities and civil liberties that are available to them in Sarawak. He had argued that the Chinese in Sarawak were so much better off, relatively speaking of course, than the Chinese in Peninsula Malaysia. He had further warned them of the lack of Chinese representation in the state government should SUPP be defeated and that other BN component parties would then capitalize on SUPP's defeat to "change everything". (Source: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=577898)"

His fear-mongering play of the racial card is despicable enough, but what is worse is that upon having been named and shamed, Kong doesn't apologise but issues a confused rebuttal made up of a concoction of hypocritical statements and bizarre lies on unrelated topics, to deflect attention from the humiliation of his previous statement.

Kong's response was to issue the false and bizarre statement that DAP is "not the least bit multi-racial", that DAP "breeds antagonism among the Chinese and the Iban" and that "the needs of all voters, not just one ethnicity should be safeguarded by a political party."

It is amusing that he is completely blind to the fact that his criticism is most applicable MCA. It is MCA that is "not the least bit multi-racial", that breeds antagonism among the races, and that is concerned with only their own ethnicity.

Kong should refer to his party constitution which states that only Malaysians of Chinese descent may be accepted as members. Furthermore, he himself was pitting the Chinese in Sarawak against other ethnic groups and plant inter-ethnic suspicion among them. In essence, everything that Kong says and does is to serve the interests of his own ethnic group, to the exclusion of others Malaysians. Therefore, Kong lacks the moral standing in which to criticise DAP.

In contrast to the monoethnic MCA, DAP membership has no racial requirement. DAP welcomes all Malaysians to join in our struggle for a peaceful and prosperous social democracy, regardless of their ethnicity.

In the Dewan Rakyat, DAP has 22 Members of Parliament who are of Chinese descent, 5 of Indian descent, and 2 of Punjabi descent. In the Dewan Negara, DAP has a Senator who is Malay and a second who is of Indian descent.

Kong further claimed that MCA "spoke out" against the impoundment and desecration of the AlKitab. This is laughable because on the rare occasions when MCA has spoken up, their voices have been so muted and reserved. MCA has a track record of being as patient as a mule with UMNO and Perkasa's antics of racial and religious extremism. How quiet was MCA during the cow-head protest in Shah Alam in 2009, the ongoing Interlok "pariah" debacle, and the continuous barrage of racist articles published by the UMNO-owned Utusan Malaysia which carries on unpunished until today.

For Kong to have any credibility at all, I challenge Kong to abandon the racial line, openly denounce the aforenamed racial and religious extremism and prove it by opening their party membership to all Malaysians as a show of their conviction to serve not just the Chinese, but all Malaysians. Failing which, Kong Cho Ha and MCA will sink further into history as an outdated, irrelevant race-based party which refused to wake up.

* Teresa Kok Suh Sim, DAP National Organizing Secretary, Selangor State Senior EXCO for Investment, Industry & Trade & MP for Seputeh