Ti Lian Ker said non-Malay support for BN took a hit following the controversy that arose after then Umno Youth leader Hishamuddin Hussein wielded a keris at the Umno annual general assembly in 2005, a stunt which upset the non-Malay community.
Despite Hishammuddin later apologising for his antics, Ti said analysts cited the incident as one of several which pushed the non-Malays over to the opposition in the 2008 general election.
Ti said five years earlier, then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had likened Suqiu, a Chinese lobby group, to “communists from the past” and the Al-Ma’unah cult.
In 2006, non-Muslim ministers were forced to retract a memorandum calling upon then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to protect the rights of religious minorities. Ti said the move left a bitter taste in the mouth of the Chinese community which had voted overwhelmingly for BN and Umno in the 2004 general election, which was the first with Abdullah leading BN.
Another incident that riled up the Chinese community was the vitriol aimed at Robert Kuok in 2018 following accusations that the tycoon had funded the DAP’s bid to topple the BN government, Ti said.
He added that Umno’s Nazri Aziz, who had challenged Kuok to return from Hong Kong to contest in the general election, had refused to apologise for calling the tycoon a “pondan”.
“These incidents did not sit well with the Chinese community, especially after MCA had persuaded the community to back Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his spat with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah as well as support Abdullah Ahmad Badawi later.
“And we (MCA) were guilty by association and ended up as collateral damage,” he told FMT.
Ti was commenting on Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi’s call for MCA to reflect on its declining support from the Chinese community.
Puad said while he sympathised with MCA, the party should ask itself why its support had declined to such an extent that it only managed to win two parliamentary seats in the 15th general election in November 2022. He suggested that the party’s poor performance had nothing to do with BN.
Puad’s comments were made in response to MCA secretary-general Chong Sin Woon urging the party to take charge of its own destiny if BN continued to drag its feet over a clear direction for the coalition.
Ti also said that the prediction by former finance minister Daim Zainuddin in 2018, widely reported in the vernacular papers at the time, that Pakatan Harapan would make inroads in the general election had also swayed the Chinese community to back the then opposition.
The former deputy unity minister said Umno should not close an eye to these “historical facts”. It must admit that MCA should not shoulder the entire blame for its dwindling support, especially when the party had remained loyal to BN despite the controversies that plagued the coalition, including the 1MDB scandal.
He also felt that Puad’s remarks were off the mark and reeked of arrogance.
Chong, he said, was merely expressing concern about Umno gravitating too much to PH, especially DAP.
Right now, the impression, rightly or wrongly, was that Umno was selling out to DAP, which could also be costly to Umno, Ti said.
“Umno cannot continue to shut its component parties out or leave them in the dark as this will mean that Umno is selling out BN in favour of DAP, which in the long run could spell the end of BN.”