Ong Ka Ting Last Chance For greatness.

MCA's leaders should by now be aware of the political significance of the 8th march , 2008 election which swept the oppositon to power in five states.If there is still any doubts, the Permatang Pauh by-election which gave Pakatan Rakyat, Annuar Ibrahim a landslide victory should cast aside any reservation why the non malays have abandoned traditional race based party and gave their full support to the opposition parties of DAP and PKR.

From their current jockeying for MCA leadership one important aspect which most of them fail to take stock is the future direction of the party.None of the leaders seem to have any idea where the future direction of the party was heading.If the current groundswell of discontentment among the non-malays is any indication MCA would be history after the 13th General Election.Therefore it becomes irrelevant and of no consequence who shall lead MCA if their intent was to remain in the Barisan National.

MCA and all the other B.N component parties in the coalition will die a natural death after the next general election.That was further confirm by the Cross street polling station in Permatang Pauh where majority of the chinese voted for Annuar.And all these despite the promise of monetary contribution to the chinese schools. In previous elections such a strategy would bought support from the chinese community.But after 50 years the non-malay voters have become more savvy with their electoral preference.

Ong Ka Ting , the current President of MCA would do a great service to the chinese community if he should choose to make a momentous and history changing decision to take MCA out from the Barisan National and join the current popular Pakatan Rakyat.Ong's decision to change the future direction of MCA by joining Pakatan Rakyat would not only save an otherwise doom party but would rekindle its aspiration to represent the interest of the chinese community.Failure to do this would spell the death Knell of MCA as a party representing the chinese.


An astute leader would have seen the writing on the wall.The chinese would no longer want to play second fiddle to UMNO and be merely satisfied with the crumbs that they dish out to the MCA leaders .For too long, MCA leaders have remain silent while UMNO's racists members lashed out and threaten chinese leaders who vocalised a more equitable policy in education and business policies.In Anwar, they now have found a leader who would be fair and equitable to all races guided by the basic principle that need and poverty would supplant the policy of helping along racial lines.

The policy espoused by Pakatan Rakyat is a fair and equitable one.If 70% of the poor living in rural areas are malays then so be it, they would qualify for the bulk of the govt's help.The policy implemented would be to help 70% of the poor malays not along racial lines but because it so happen that 70% of the poor are malays.However, 30% poor indians and chinese are also not forgotten.The policy would automatically extend help to other communities who needs help because of their poverty levels and not because of racial factors.Such an equitable policy even though slanted to help the rural malays more would be acceptable to all races because govt assisstance is only extended to those who genuinely needs help and not to those who are rich and belong to one particular race.

Ong Ka Ting would go down in history as a great chinese leader if he can grasp this opportunity and lead MCA into a new and acceptable direction that would guarantee a brighter future for the chinese community.If Ong choose not to do so then he will go down in history as the President who could have changed the plight of the chinese people but choose not to do so.