‘I would have taken us out of BN’

> Current party leaders made MCA laughing stock, says Soi Lek

KUALA LUMPUR: Former MCA president Tan Sri Dr Chua Soi Lek said he would have brought the party out of Barisan Nasional (BN) following the coalition’s defeat in the 14th general election (GE14), if he was still party president.

Chua took the current leadership to task, saying they were unable to make the crucial decision of leaving BN, even after MCA had lost the support and confidence of the people.

He added that the failure of MCA’s top leaders has made the party a laughing stock after GE14.

“If I was MCA president at the time and was asked what I would do, the first thing I would do is to take MCA out of BN.

“Then there was an MCA supreme leader who said that the party won’t come out of BN, that it would sack Umno from BN. The party (MCA) became the biggest joke in 2018,” he said yesterday when launching his book Like Me or Hate Me, Rising from the Political Ashes: The Memoirs Of Chua Soi Lek.

Chua also called on party members and MCA delegates to change MCA’s leadership in the party elections next month.

He said the delegates should choose leaders with hope and inspiration, not those “trapped in denial syndromes”, adding that the new leaders should be those who can lead the party in a new direction for the benefit of its members and the people.

“Choose a brave leader, say what is right and do what is right.”

In his book, Chua talks about hypocrisy in the MCA, saying he had seen a lot of hypocrites in the party.

“If you stand in the general election and are rejected, you have to accept the fact that the voters do not support you and your party. There are no two ways about it.

“When would-be MPs are rejected by voters and proclaim to the world that they accept the verdict, but then allow themselves to be appointed to a higher political office, the move calls into question their allegiance,” he said.

“Now there is talk in MCA that hypocrites like these are being groomed as candidates in different states for the coming general election.”

Chua and his wife Wong Sek Him at the launch of his memoirs in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.