MCA has no intention of handing over the Tanjung Malim parliamentary seat to Umno, which traditionally belongs to the Chinese party.
MCA division leader Goh Choong Seng said this in response to Mohd Khusairi Abdul Talib’s statement that the party should make way for Umno in Tanjung Malim in the next general election.
Goh said the question of seat allocation should be decided by the coalition’s top leaders.
He said MCA intended to keep what was traditionally the party’s.
“We will defend the Tanjong Malim federal seat as a traditional MCA seat and we will continue to field our candidate there.
“We have not stopped serving the people in this constituency despite losing in the last general election.
“Our service centre in Slim River is still functioning,” he said in a statement.
In the last general election, PKR’s Chang Lih Kang defeated MCA’s Mah Hang Soon in a three-cornered fight with a majority of 5,358 votes, ending MCA’s grip on the seat.
Yesterday, Khusairi said 60 of the 63 Umno branches in the area had asked for the seat to be given to the Malay party.
“We have pushed forward this demand to the Umno and BN leadership. It is up to them to decide on the candidate,” said Khusairi, who is the Tanjung Malim BN division chief and the assemblyman for Slim, a seat under the Tanjung Malim federal constituency.
He said MCA should contest DAP seats such as Kepong, Damansara, Seremban and Kota Melaka, where the majority of voters were Chinese.
Almost 53% of Tanjung Malim voters are Malay, followed by Chinese (27%) and Indian (14%).
Meanwhile, MCA secretary-general Chong Sin Woon said it’s up to BN’s supreme council to decide on seat allocations, adding that leaders at division levels should just follow instructions from top.
“Division leaders can have their own ideas, but they must also be aware that all decisions are finalised at the top level,” he told The Malaysian Insight. – TMI