By Lim Kit Siang, MP for Gelang Patah
The Barisan Nasional BackBenchers Club (BNBBC) comprising Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament have sprung a surprise on its website, lambasting MCA and advising MCA leaders that they “should not spew nonsense or act as a hero as if trying to show the Chinese community that it fights for them” over the controversial hudud issue.
In an anonymous opinion piece on the BNBBC portal, MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong was called “rude” for suggesting yesterday that the party will consider its membership in the ruling coalition should UMNO continue to support hudud.
The BNBBC stand is a surprise as the question that is inevitably asked is whether it represents the views of all 133 BN MPs, i.e. 88 from UMNO, 14 from PBB, 7 from MCA, 6 from Sarawak People’s Party (PRS), 4 each from MIC, Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) and Parti Demokratik Progresif Sarawak (SPDB); 3 from UPKO; 1 each from Gerakan, SUPP and Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) or just the views of the 88 UMNO MPs.
If the BNBBC anonymous opinion piece does not represent the consensus views of all the BN MPs, will the seven MCA MPs ask the BNBBC portal to publish an open retraction and apology?
Or will the MCA President Liow Tiong Lai and the MCA Deputy President Wee Ka Siong just keep quiet as they do not want to jeopardise the three ministerial and five deputy ministerial seats the MCA leadership is hoping to get when there is a Cabinet reshuffle and MCA returns to the BN Cabinet and government before the reconvening of Parliament on 9th June ?
In fact, this will be a crucial test whether to the MCA leaders, particularly to Liow and Wee, despite all the “hot air” the MCA is blowing recently, they are prepared to forgo all the three ministerial and five deputy ministerial seats on an important principle.
What Liow and Wee should do is to act on the advice of the former MCA President Chua Soi Lek and immediately requisition for an emergency Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting for a policy decision to be taken on hudud, as out of the 13 BN component parties, 11 or even 12 of them would oppose any implementation of hudud, whether PAS or UMNO.
