It's a do or die, admits MCA chief

Harakahdaily,

Apr 15: MCA president Chua Soi Lek (pic) has admitted that the next general election will be a "do or die" battle for the Chinese-only party, amid overwhelming prediction that it could be wiped out from the Malaysian political scene.

"This coming GE is a do-or-die battle for MCA, we should set our differences aside and ensure all BN candidates will emerge victorious because the outcome of the GE will affect MCA’s political future and the nation," said Chua in an attempt to calm growing anger among grassroots leaders over the party's surrender of its traditional seats to UMNO.

It was reported earlier that UMNO is 'taking over' several parliamentary seats where MCA is the incumbent. The move comes days after DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang joined other Pakatan Rakyat bigwigs to take the battle to Johor, long seen a bastion of UMNO.

Lim also commented on the surrender of Gelang Patah, where he will be PR's candidate, to UMNO, despite the constituency being "a historic MCA fortress".

Gelang Patah is a majority Chinese seat, making up 53 per cent of voters.

"If MCA has to surrender to UMNO an electoral constituency where there is a majority 53% Chinese voters, then MCA will have to surrender to UMNO another 25 parliamentary seats and 33 State Assembly seats with a Chinese voter percentage of less than 52%!" Lim said.

Chua however prefers to use the term "loan", confident that the party will reap 'interests' from the 'loan' in the form of additional new seats as a result of redelineation of constituencies after the GE.

The former Health minister, who joins counterparts from other BN component parties Gerakan and SUPP by not contesting any seat at the coming polls, said the 'loan' was part of "new strategies".

Chua meanwhile announced that MCA will field 19 new faces for parliamentary seats and 49 new faces for state seats.