29 Feb 2020
Keynote Address by MCA Secretary General Datuk Chong Sin Woon on the Occasion of the 71st Anniversary of MCA
1. Venerable party veterans, Barisan Nasional coalition leaders, leaders from the Chinese guilds and associations, Central Committee members, media friends, comrades from all over the country and our friends watching the livestream of this event, I greet you all a wonderful morning. We are gathered here today to celebrate a day of profound significance - the 71st anniversary of the founding of Malaysian Chinese Association.
2. From the outset, I want to extend my warmest welcome to the leaders of the Chinese guilds and associations and express my sincerest appreciation to our veterans whose passion towards the party have remained intact throughout the decades. MCA today celebrates our 71st birthday. Any person above the age of 70 years is often considered by society to be ancient. A party over 70 years old does not age the same way, on the contrary, it is strengthened by the wisdom and spirit of the veterans from each generation. How can we make our party great again? The theme for this year’s party celebration is of great significance. In addition to entertainment performances, it is more important to reflect and improve, to rediscover the original intention and values of the party, and to rekindle the enthusiasm of our party’s struggle.
3. Observing that the current political situation is turbulent and filled with many uncertain factors, our nation constantly longs for a return to a bygone era. The theme of this year's party celebration is: "Freedom, Democracy, Justice, Together We Build a Malaysia For All". In reaffirming the party’s core values and principles, such values and ideas by our party will lead our country and society with a new path. The next challenge is to face arduous reforms with a firm commitment. Our party has reached a critical moment of change and a need to upgrade! Given the loss of Chinese support during the 9 May 2018 general election (509) and the challenges posed by mainstream public opinion, the tragedy and chaos which unfurled under the Pakatan Harapan government and seeing the large number of first-time voters for GE15, if we do not rise again, I am afraid that our party will face more severe and daunting challenges and dilemmas. Hence, we must have the courage to change and upgrade, and let the founding party enter its 71st year with a starting point of change. I would like to sincerely invite everyone to join us today to participate and undertake the change and promotion by our party.
4. In a democratic society, as political workers, we must maintain a humble attitude and listen at all times, because public opinion will be our judge. Since our two losses from the 12th and 13th general elections, our party’s highlighting of the party's core values, policy lines, talent cultivation, and organisational structure may no longer be able to meet the requirements of current times. Therefore, we need to adjust and upgrade the 71st year of the party’s establishment. The new Central Committee under the leadership of President Datuk Seri Ir Dr Wee Ka Siong intends to revitalise the party and strive to improve the party’s direction to be more in tune with public opinion and modernise our party.
5. There are three directions which we have to work at: Firstly, discussion of core values, research and development of policies; Secondly, strengthening of party affairs; Thirdly, talent cultivation within the party; and amongst others, discussion and policies are the most important.
6. MCA inherits a 70-year legacy of political ideology. However, as times change, we have to continue to push forward through innovation. We constantly keep election strategies close to our lips, but we tend to speak little of our party’s core values. Since the formation of the party 70 years ago, be it the Party Anthem declaring “Protection of the Constitution and Democracy”, the Party Constitution Chapter 2, Section 6 “Aims and Objectives”, or the Party Pledge “(1) To serve Our Party and Country with Loyalty, To Develop a Just Society” and “(2) To Uphold the Federal Constitution and To Protect Democratic Freedoms;” MCA’s strive for democracy and fairness has been laid out clearly. This is the party’s core value and spirit, which is not merely a slogan, but our political compass and narrative. We shall uphold democracy, advocate for racial equality, champion the people’s voices, protect the rights of the Chinese community and vulnerable groups, and promote the shared harmony between all races in Malaysia.
7.We are all familiar with how leftist parties are masters of heart-wrenching narratives, often taking advantage of the people’s emotional sentiments. However, stirring the people up will only cause a more extreme reaction, resulting in an uncontrollable conflict. During the times leading to Merdeka, MCA chose peaceful diplomacy in negotiating with the British, alongside the Malays and the Indians. After 70 years, we have stayed true to this methodology, and we believe that in order to build up Malaysia, understanding between all races and working together in the centrist path remains the most suitable model in the current times.
8. The reason and value for our party’s strive, must be embedded in our political education syllabus. The MCA School of Political Studies will be fully endorsing this, and all MCA members nationwide must keep the party’s objective at heart, to be bold and courageous in defending the party when we are faced with perpetrators who attempt to undermine democratic freedoms and commit other legal or moral offenses.
9. We have enjoyed freedom throughout the years since Merdeka. But this does not mean that we can take it for granted. One of MCA’s struggles is for the freedom of Malaysians, including: freedom to practise religion, freedom to learn and practise our mother tongue, personal freedom, freedom to assemble, and freedom of expression. Only if these are protected, may the nation progress, and the people’s welfare ensured.
10. Democracy follows the world’s development. The pursuit of democracy and human rights resonates with the development trend of democracy worldwide. Democracy must be built on the basis of safeguarding the people and their rights. Democracy is not about the majority ruling over the minority, but also the majority respecting the wishes of the minority, especially in the context of a multiracial nation. If every decision is based on the number of votes, then the majority race will forever bully the minorities in the name of democracy. Thus, the meaning of democracy has to be understood clearly in the party, so that our future battles will be well defined.
11. Fairness is a goal that we have clearly pursued since the establishment of the party; Just as how when we sing the party anthem every time, there is a phrase "realise fairness in society". Particularly for the Chinese community and ethnic minorities, we pursue reason, fairness and equality. We expect our country to treat every citizen fairly, regardless of race. Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares, " All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." This is a lofty goal which cannot be accomplished overnight. The entire party should adopt this as its conviction to achieve a Malaysia which practises equality among all ethnic groups;
12. Observing the party’s core values and philosophy, the approach which I intend to implement must be practical and imbued with a cognitive attitude.
13. We must clearly recognise that the people's support for MCA cannot be based on the failure of the Pakatan Harapan; We must undertake an open attitude towards politically sensitive issues, a wider perspective. We must be clear and understand our position, and this is the first step we need to take to rise up; (and our attitude must be steady bom bi bi)
14.Continuing with this cognitive attitude, we must next build a platform for communication and dialogue engagement. In order to implement the core values described above, communication and dialogue will be the next practical approach that we must implement. Through dialogue, we seek out opportunities for promoting equality; and also break out of our comfort zone, to allow entry of multifaceted ideas, and to express our message to the others;
15. Communication and dialogue are not just for internal party use, but more importantly, as we live in a multicultural country, without dialogue, major misunderstandings may occur. Misunderstandings which permeate would render difficulties in establishing and promoting policies that are beneficial to people. It is my hopes that our party can become a model of dialogue and communication among other local political parties; Therefore, we will increase the regularity of carrying out a series of dialogues, debates, talks, forums, consultations, etc, to gather opinions from all quartres and respond to developments in the current situation, so that our party may return to functioning politically and effectively;
16. Through dialogue, an amalgamation of ideas is generated, as long as the policies are beneficial and fits our political alignment, we should maintain an open and inclusive attitude to cooperate with other political parties on issues and policies. For areas where we dispute or cannot reach an agreement, we must establish our common threshold through communication and dialogue; As long as we are willing to take the first step, the door for dialogue and communication will be opened because of us, leading to better mutual understanding in the society. Let me share with you my thoughts and reflections of a recent Hong Kong film:
17. In the movie Ip Man 4: The Finale, the majority of the Chinese cast played the role of defending their culture, Chairman Wan in particular, no matter economics or martial arts advancements; he led the people to shutter themselves within the confines of the Chinatown, unwilling to interact with the Americans; Bruce Lee and Ip Man on the other hand, used dialogue and communication as a bridge, even though this wasn’t well accepted by many.
18. Here as well, I tell the Chinese community, in defending and pushing for our own culture, the question of the need to break out of our comfort zone on the premise of sharing our culture, to explain and describe the links between our culture and history through the use of other languages, is certainly worth mulling over. Faced with the constantly changing society and the multi-ethnic background of Malaysia and its challenges, how exactly can we flourish and prosper with the other races? This is the question that MCA and the Chinese community must ponder over.
19. In Ip Man 4’s promotional poster, Ip Man’s training dummy was ablaze on one side, and Ip Man continues training on the other side. This signifies that while we defend and protect our culture, we must also be aware of being forgotten and harmed, and when faced with both simultaneously, we must reflect, how can we preserve our cultural identity while passing it on to the next generation and resisting the destructive forces, and more importantly, who can be the ultimate successor? Thus, I hope that MCA can become like Ip Man and Bruce Lee! Besides being able to fight 10 persons at a time, also to build bridges by initiating dialogues and communications, and be the PILLARS of those bridges.
20. Platforms for dialogue need to be spread out effectively to achieve better results. In the past, our party's mainstream warfare was very strong, but online warfare was weak. We have been surrounded by immense rumour mongering amidst a network of quartres hostile to us for a long time. Positive initiatives have been disparaged as bad things. To strengthen the party’s communication and networking whilst improving outreach and the party’s branding, so that not only will the Chinese community be aware of our position, but to also enable other ethnic groups to understand our views; let us enhance dialogues effectively via the media, internet, inter-ethnic and cross-generational discourses; reshape our Lan Tian branding through marketing and dialogue!
21. Following the attitudes and practices mentioned above, we encourage more young party members to engage with local residents on a deeper level; the Tanjong Piai by-election has just passed, and our YB Jeck Seng is a model of a successful home grown local talent; However, we hope that a new generation can provide added value to home grown local talents. Close communication and dialogues with local residents can assist our party to connect with the local constituency. Providing young party members the opportunity to operate in the local area is one of the best ways to cultivate talents within the party; With a deep engagement, in the event of snap polls, voters are familiar with you and acknowledge your deeds, thus increasing the chances of success significantly!
22.We also need to keep abreast of global issues, create a wider international political horizon for party members, fully express our party’s position on international affairs, establish more diverse international cooperation channels, whilst introducing more political value and discussions into MCA. MCA will thus become a diverse, open, inclusive and forward-looking political party, which in turn will attract middle-aged voters and young urban voters. This will reduce the entrenched impression that our party is a cinapek party.
23. At the same time, we must also improve communications and exchanges with our counterparts from East Malaysia. We often hear that the racial barriers in East Malaysia is not as harsh as it is in West Malaysia. Therefore, for policies, dialogues, discussions, activities and platforms, East Malaysian political parties’ communications and exchange regarding harmony should be promoted.
24. As a conservative party, our next policy aims to pursue the following direction which we hope will convince parties and voters alike:
a. Establish a large, advanced economic market that practises open, free and fair trade;
b. Establish a nation that is technologically powerful with a strong middle class and sufficient labour force;
c. Establish a nation that upholds gender equality, whilst prioritising the well-being, safety and security of her citizens;
d. Establish a nation where human capital adapts to modernisation in the global arena but hinged on localisation with regional characteristics;
e. Build a community that lives happily together!
25. The above are my thoughts and propositions since over a period of time. As a starting point for everyone's discussion, comments and suggestions are most welcome.
Datuk Chong Sin Woon
MCA Secretary General
-MCA Online-
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