Media Statement by MP for Kluang, Wong Shu Qi on 25th January 2021: 

It is hard to believe that a deputy minister who holds the national unity portfolio wrote a lengthy article filled with racial rhetorics promoting particular ethnicities before national identity. Yet, after a year of failed governance, nothing about the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government surprises us anymore. 

Yesterday, Deputy Minister of National Unity, Ti Lian Ker published an article in the MCA-owned The Star newspaper. In the article, he put forward the usual frame of “Chinese versus Malay” in Malaysia. Within the first few paragraphs, Ti had already assumed that Chinese in this country have to constantly contend against the Malay majority through a Chinese-based party like MCA. To Ti, the relationship between Malaysians of different ethnicity and cultural background is one of contestation not cooperation. 

In order to come to this conclusion, Ti provided an over-simplified and naive account of history and then proceeded to put the blame on a few leaders who are no longer with them. In his oversimplified and naive version of the story, MCA is of course whitewashed and absolved from any wrongdoings.

The skewed, oversimplified and naive propaganda aside, it is audacious for Ti, the Deputy Minister of National Unity to project himself as the champion of a particular race over and against the promotion of national identity and social cohesion. However, upon further reflection, Ti was perhaps echoing Prime Minister Muhyddin Yassin who proudly declared that he is a Malay first before a Malaysian. As a result of this sort of racial ideology within the PN government, MCA the self-proclaimed Chinese champion, is now relegated to having almost no voice at all in key policy decisions in the government. Thus, MCA’s Minister and Deputy Ministers are resigned to “enjoying the perks without the works” within PN.  

Consistent with his racist frame of mind, Ti repeatedly claimed in his article, that DAP did not do enough for the Chinese and was controlled by Tun Dr. Mahathir in the 22-month Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government. Of course, Ti totally ignored the rhetorics by his Malay partners in PN, from UMNO to PAS to BERSATU, that the PH government was in effect controlled by DAP. Herein lies the problem with PN, BN and MCA. This forked-tongue strategy of saying different things to the different ethnic groups constituted MCA-BN’s long standing divide-and-rule racist policy. On one hand, MCA will always alarm the Chinese community that their rights are being compromised and only MCA can defend them; while on the other hand, UMNO, now BERSATU and PAS, will terrify the Malays that their rights are being robbed and only these Malay parties can defend them.

In the 22 months of PH government, BN went to town with such a forked-tongue strategy even at the risk of burning down the house of our fragile Malaysian unity. 

The truth is of course, MCA is struggling to prove its worth after deciding to be the proverbial 千古罪人 (sinner of a thousand generations) in February 2020 to join force in the treacherous Sheraton Move which destroyed our democracy. They can give whatever excuses and justifications for joining this unelected government – the usual ones would be to ensure that Chinese rights are protected – but the result is open for all to see. Just like the PN government which utterly failed to manage the Covid-19 pandemic, protect our economy, and provide stability to the country, MCA Minister and Deputy Ministers utterly failed to perform in their respective portfolios, much less to protect the rights of the Chinese in Malaysia. Case in point, Ti Lian Ker, in writing such racist article, exposed his own failure as the Deputy Minister for National Unity.