Johor first state for MCA evaluation

31/12/2021 12:12 AM

JOHOR BAHRU, Dec 30  -- Johor will be the first state for MCA to be evaluated for the party to face the 15th general election (GE15), said MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.

Wee, who is also Ayer Hitam MP, said his party chose Johor as the starting state because it was a stronghold of Barisan Nasional (BN) apart from his intention to restore the glory of MCA in GE15.

"We will start the assessment in Johor first, which is the preparatory work by a special team from the central MCA to see where the weaknesses can be corrected and ‘audited’," he told a press conference after chairing the Johor MCA liaison committee meeting at the Johor MCA headquarters here today.

He said in the meeting, a resolution had been made that all MCA divisions throughout the country were instructed to be prepared for the possibility of GE15 being held at any time.

Commenting on ‘Undi-18’ , Wee, who is also the Transport Minister, said his party was ready to field as many new candidates as possible in the face of the big wave of young voters.

He said the implementation of Undi-18 would change the voting pattern of the community, especially for large constituencies such as the Iskandar Puteri and Tebrau parliament constituencies which would see an increase of 300,000 and 290,000 young voters respectively.

“This is a huge pressure, such areas need to have better strategies and we feel a new approach needs to be used to prepare candidates in terms of their mentality.

"MCA must field as many young candidates who are capable, competent and familiar to the community. Older candidates have a slight 'disadvantage' because people already know them and are aware of their shortcomings," he said.

However, he said he has not yet had a final say on how many or the percentage of new candidates that the party would feature in the next GE15.

-- BERNAMA