The MCA must now allow a new person to become president of the

party. Ong must step aside and not hold onto the post anymore.
He has been indisputably linked to the 'ten million donation'
scandal as well as other issues. Partly due to this, a lot of
allegations and doubts have been cast on him and therefore it
is best for him to step aside.

The MCA has turned into a laughing stock in the country and the
community that it was supposed to represent has slowly and most
unavoidably found itself under assault from various quarters.

Worse, year in and year out with unceasing repetition night and
day, BN politicians are churning up and regurgitating feelings of
ill will and raising communal sentiments through almost every
possible media orifice.

Even the local TV3 outfit has tried to put a political and racial
spin to a recently concluded land saga. These people have totally
forgotten that during the similar Thean Teik land case in Air Itam,
Penang the police actually shot dead one of the residents, a woman
during a fracas between the residents and the developer's workers
but it was never turned into a political or racial issue.

Today, more and more the community is coming under pressure from a
disparate collection of self-serving interests groups and political
extremists and its size is getting smaller and smaller in relation
to the overall population yet the party still seemed more concerned
with the welfare of its leaders rather than the well-being of the
community it was supposed to represent.

The daring and merciless homicide of the political secretary is

a wake-up call for the community and the people should be aware
that such a senseless murder is totally unacceptable, no matter
what party one belongs to. But the MCA leaders apparently do not
have the guts to take a firm stand on the matter. Also, they've
all along been looking the other way while many BN politicians
hawked all the sinister polemics & the racial profiling. Instead
they all have become legendary headnodders and yes-men to the BN.

Even at the recently concluded PWTC AGM meeting there was a lot
of hot air being blown around some very decidedly narrow issues
including allegations of being 'behind' and 'disadvantaged' and
'facing uncertainties'. Any person with normal eyesight should go
to the government offices and even factories like those run by
Seagate, Proton and others and straightaway become aware that
certain communities are grossly under-represented.

The MCA should by now realise that the young people leaving schools
every year are finding it hard to obtain decent employment despite
the loud boasts of many government officials and ministers. They
should never be surprised why such people are now seen to be quite
involved in shady activities like peddling pirated goods, joining
loanshark or drug or vice syndicates, stealing cars, running illegal
lotteries or other fraudulent business activities, smuggling animals,
firecrackers and other kinds of banned goods plus many other means
of earning illegal incomes. Now, who are the disadvantaged and left
behind in our society ? Who are the people most likely to face the
risk of becoming irrelevant ? Certainly not the foreign workers from
Nepal, Bangladesh or Vietnam but the minorty communities right here.

Thus, the MCA must elect a new leader to replace Ong. The MCA must
then summon the courage to call a spade a spade. It must be prepared
to leave the BN if required. Remember, the party left the government
temporarily after the May '69 killings and therefore the party must
be prepared to do the same thing once more. Stand up for the people
and the community and stop acting like a bunch of the most shameless
grovelling headnodders for once !

Crime has become so rampant in the country and this is partly caused
by our young people choosing to get involved in illegal activities in
order to earn the money that they needed. Many of them really were
left with not much choice as a result of the continuing narrow and
short-sighted policies of the BN. Worse, the jails in the country
are now very overcrowded and those who were forced to enter them
soon graduated into hardened criminals. The results can be seen
in the severity of their acts against their victims. Stripping
them, injuring and even murdering them.

The many housing estates in the country have become very unsafe and
the politicians are still fast asleep. In our place, youths ride
around on bikes as if they themselves were the law and last week
the whole area seemed like a war zone with 'bombs' exploding like
nobody's business. There was absolutely no authority in sight. The
current situation indicates that the country is following in the
footsteps of countries like Mexico or South Africa rather than one
following that so much hyped up notion of becoming a future 'high-
income' nation. The BN has well and truly failed us all.

Thus it is time for the MCA to get a NEW LEADER and make a fresh
start. Leave the government and the BN if necessary. Stand up for
the community and the people. Do away with the artificial smiles
and the mindless headnodding. Call a spade a spade. Get serious
for once !!! Now !!! Immediately !!!