MCA HQ, 4 Nov – Speaking at the sidelines of a press conference, MCA Secretary General Dato’ Seri Ong Ka Chuan was also asked to comment on the upcoming Bersih 5 and Red Shirts, both insistent on carrying on 19 November 2016 despite no approvals granted by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall or the police.

“What is the Red Shirt or Yellow Shirt? I don’t want to be personal. In Malaysia, we are a very peaceful country,” the party’s number three in the MCA hierarchy stressed before questioning, “why want to create a situation with a lot of misconception, bad perception about us?”

He recollected that last year on 16 Sept 2016, he had brought multiracial delegation to the ASEAN expo in China. “We were celebrating Malaysia Day. Then the Red Shirts … (sic),” Ka Chuan conveyed before detailing that “a reporter asked me: ‘You come here to invite investors but Malaysia’s situation is so tense and unsafe. Can you assure the investors’ safety?’ I said, ‘no such thing’ but the perception is there.”

"This (Red Shirts rally) is not the work of the ruling coalition. We should work on more constructive activity," Ka Chuan said while assuring that "not only MCA, but other parties will speak up so that we have to create peace and stability and not the other way around."

Stressing that “our BN mechanism is to help people and not to create a chaotic situation,” Ka Chuan alerted that “the Opposition will capitalise on any issue.

He clarified that “when the ruling coalition, like BN, we first have to find out what the situation is: Is there a problem eg in the cooking oil issue, rather than hard pressing the people’s feeling and emotion and the feeling (atmosphere) becomes not well, and the ruling coalition and people are driven far apart,” Citing the example of the shortage of water in Selangor, the Member of Parliament for Tanjung Malim said that “we have to go there and see how to help them, rather than follow the Opposition and hold demonstration. Our work is to create stability, harmony. That is our work.”

Extending an olive branch to Pakatan, Ka Chuan expressed, “even the Opposition, I hope they will not do this. It is not the time to capitalise on this issue. We have to work together eg on the Selangor water crisis, the state and federal governments should come together to solve this issue rather than oppose each other.”

Detailing some trade statistics, Ka Chuan highlighted that “in MITI, our trade fundamentals are doing very well. In 2015, Malaysia’s trade volume totalled RM1.43 trillion. So far this year, we have exported RM780b, and until September 2016, Malaysia’s trade volume reached RM1.07trillion. This means we can exceed the RM1.43trillion figure of last year, and achieve maybe RM1.46 trillion or RM1.5 trillion trade volume this year.

While affirming that “Malaysia still stands very strong,” the Minister of International Trade and Industry II nevertheless cautioned that “if you still carry on doing unproductive things, the international investors looking at the uncertain situation and pull out, the fundamental system cannot sustain and the whole country will suffer.”

-MCA online-