In a recent interview with China Press, MCA Deputy President, Wee Ka Siong suggested that Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) may form the next government with UMNO should PPBM fail to gain enough seats in the next election.
Such logic demonstrates Wee and the MCA’s entrenched racist mentality. To suggest that the two opposing Malay nationalist parties will join hand is clearly to strike fear among non-Malays especially the Chinese.
PPBM will only contest 52 parliamentary seats in the coming election. Out of these 52 seats contested by PPBM, all but seven are held by UMNO. In the coming election, UMNO is going to contest in 48 seats out of the 52 seats. In other words, PPBM will be contesting against UMNO. If PPBM wins sufficient seats to form a coalition government, it would mean two things: One, UMNO lost most of its seats, and two, other Pakatan Harapan component parties, DAP, Amanah and PKR will also win substantial number of seats. In such scenario, why does PPBM still need UMNO to form government?
On the contrary, if PPBM cannot win enough seats, it would mean UMNO won big, and component parties especially PKR and Amanah will also be unlikely to make inroads into other UMNO seats. Thus, there is no incentive for UMNO to co-opt PPBM or any non-BN parties into its government.
It is clear that Wee Ka Siong’s statement was nothing but pure fear-mongering. He wanted to frighten the Chinese against voting for Pakatan Harapan by painting a scenario where two Malay nationalist parties join force. This is racist politics at the highest degree.
Instead of dealing with corruption and kleptocracy, and arresting the high cost of living facing Malaysians, MCA continues to help UMNO to play up racist politics. On one hand, UMNO frightens the Malays saying Lim Kit Siang will be the next Prime Minister if Pakatan Harapan wins, on the other hand, MCA mislead the Chinese about PPBM.
While they are spewing wild imagination about a potential PPBM-UMNO cooperation, MCA is completely blind and deaf to the close cooperation between UMNO and PAS going on for more than a year now since UMNO allowed PAS to table its Hudud bill in Parliament in 2016.
Wee Ka Siong clearly miscalculated the maths behind seats allocation when he said that PPBM will form government with UMNO after the next general election. But more seriously, Wee miscalculated Malaysians’ determination to vote for Change against racist politics and kleptocracy.