MCA not ready for snap polls this year

MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek said that MCA was not ready to face a snap general election this year, which has been rumoured of late.

He said that if elections were to be held within next three months as speculated by some media organisations, MCA will not be ready because it was still recovering from the past year of internal strife.

"I need at least six months to a year to stabilise the party. I need unity of purpose by party members to achieve a common agenda,” said Chua, who took helm of the party in late March.

Asked about speculations that snap polls can be called as early as September, after Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak announces favourable second quarter economic growth results, Chua said that this speculation was unlikely to be true.

"In politics, nothing is impossible. But to your question, I think it is unlikely," said Chua.

To another question, Chua said that MCA has not yet decided on its candidates.

Chua said this during a special interview session with a select group of media organisations, in conjunction with his 100th day as MCA president at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

He described that the past three months has been the busiest period of his life thus far.

"I had to work every day. I must extend my gratitude to all the central and division leaders for their cooperation. Only a minority refused to cooperate due to personal agendas.

"This is a democratic country. We cannot obtain 100 percent concensus. As long as I have the majority support, I will continue to work hard," he said.

Cyber warfare

He expressed hope that MCA would pay more attention to the "cyber war" and encourage young party members to counter Pakatan Rakyat online campaigns.

"I believe that our publicity work is bad. It is very bad, especially when it comes to the new media.

"Don't forget that they control four states. However, our party members behave like they are still in control and are yet to scrutinise Pakatan's wrong doings,” he said.

He said that through the Internet and new media, MCA can expose Pakatan's blemishes.

"They are not perfect. They don't always practice what they preach and fulfill election pledges. We need to list them out," he said.

Asked about BN's chances in the next general election, Chua said that he does not possess a "crystal ball" and refused to speculate.

Using an analogy, he said that a night can be very long and if elections were held next year the circumstances will be different.

He hope that the public would consider why many Pakatan elected representatives, some of which were party stalwarts, quit their respective parties because they were unhappy with their leaders.

courtesy of Malaysiakini