Malaysian Chinese Association

Malaysian Chinese Association

Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) (simplified Chinese: 马来西亚华人公会; traditional Chinese: 馬來西亞華人公會; pinyin: Mǎláixīyà Huárén Gōnghuì; Cantonese: MaLoiSaiYa WahYen KoongWui; Malay: Persatuan Cina Malaysia) is a uni-racial political party in Malaysia that represents the Malaysian Chinese ethnicity; it is one of the three major component parties of the ruling coalition in Malaysia called the Barisan Nasional (BN) in Malay, or National Front in English.

Along with the largest and third largest component party in BN, i.e. United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), MCA has a strong influence over the political arena in Malaysia. Through its substantial holding of companies such as Huaren Holdings, MCA also controls five other significant media press companies, i.e., The Star, being Malaysia's best-selling English language newspaper Sin Chew Jit Poh, Nanyang Siang Pau, and China Press, being three of the best-selling Chinese newspapers in Kuala Lumpur and Central Region of West Malaysia; and Guang Ming Daily being a smaller press in northern West Malaysia as the owner of these four presses are owned by media tycoon Tiong Hiew King where his family members are the major party of the ruling coalition in Sarawak. Over the years, the domination of media press caused major resentments in the sub-divided party, with a so-called "Team B" of the MCA and the press reporters for breaching freedom of the press in the country.

MCA performed poorly in the last general election held in 2008. This, along with continued factionalism has raised concerns over the party's relevance in the Malaysian political arena.