Published in full below is a media statement issued by MCA Religious Harmony Bureau Chairman, Dato’ Sri Ti Lian Ker

Zam got it wrong playing divisive game! BN is alive & kicking while the opposition fades further into dust

Regarding the preposterous slur by former Information Minister Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin as reported in Free Malaysia Today on 23 Aug 2016 that “MCA sudah mati, tetapi UMNO belum sedar”, this is politics as usual.

Zam is trying to be "Batu Api" to serve the cause of his political masters.

“
BN will survive
”
- Ti Lian Ker
All component parties stood under the BN platform. We stood and lost under the BN platform due to several factors inter alia:

1. In Chinese majority areas, DAP whose appeal is Chinese chauvinism attracts the bulk of the Chinese votes. They are further helped by PAS, PKR etc in the previous elections allowing them to win over some additional mixed seats.

2. In mixed seats or urban whereby Malay voters are the majority, PKR sent a Malay candidate to contest against Chinese or Indian candidates from BN. This had resulted in the said non-Malay candidates losing their seats due to racial sentiment and prevailing Chinese anti-establishment feelings.

Zainuddin's over simplification of the political situation is either that he is so trapped in his racial Chinese-against-Malay taunting or he is just a "fox" trying to fish votes in troubled waters, or trying to create trouble waters amongst BN which is united and intact in facing the opposition onslaught from many corners.

The fact is that the opposition is in tatters whereas BN is united. We are slowly and surely overcoming the challenges and the multiple issues facing us. We have ridden over the worst of GST, currency depreciation, economic downturn, Maths and Science in English and even the 1MDB was a non-issue in the two recent by-elections in Kuala Kangsar and Sg. Besar as well as in the Sarawak state elections.

All in all, BN will survive (I quote Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad’s words) as BN has established a political tradition and convention of principles of working together towards holding the plural society of nation intact together.

At the end of the day, BN will survive these onslaught as a whole but the same cannot be said of some of the coalition parties of the very fragmented opposition.

Zam knows this, thus he is trying very hard to break BN by using his divisive mind and tricks.

Dato’ Sri Ti Lian Ker is the MCA Religious Harmony Bureau Chairman

The views expressed above are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Astro AWANI.