Jui Meng says expects Soi Lek to run in Malay-majority seat

By Shannon Teoh

February 09, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9 — Datuk Chua Jui Meng has predicted that Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek will run in a Malay-majority seat in the next general election, ridiculing the MCA president for being unable to gain support from Chinese voters.

The former MCA vice-president, who defected to PKR in 2009, had earlier challenged Dr Chua to run against him in the 13th general election.

Dr Chua replied on Tuesday night that as president, “I am determined to set a good example and will only go to a place where no one wants to go or where there is no winnable (sic) candidate.”

But Chua (picture)mocked the former MP for Labis, a mixed-race seat, for dodging his challenge, saying “there is no safe seat for him” with a Chinese majority.

“He will end up in a Malay-majority seat because even the MCA president cannot attract Chinese voters anymore,” the Johor PKR chief told The Malaysian Insider last night.

Chua, the former MP for Bakri, a Chinese-majority area now held by the DAP, also criticised his rival for repeatedly saying that a vote for the DAP is a vote for PAS.

“It is so clear for everyone that a vote for MCA is a vote for Umno. Malays, Indians and Chinese all know that. But only he is so blind that he cannot see that.

“While I have to contest wherever the party places me, he is the president so he gets first choice and can run against me if he dares,” Chua added.

Dr Chua had also mocked Chua’s failure in 2005 and 2008 to become MCA president as the reason for the former health minister joining PKR.

Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat had beaten Chua in the presidential race after Election 2008 which saw the MCA’s presence in Parliament shrink from 31 to 15.

The party subsequently sacked Dr Chua in August 2009 over his 2007 sex video scandal, sparking an extraordinary general meeting where a vote of no confidence in Ong was passed.

Dr Chua became MCA president in March 2010 in fresh elections where he saw off Ong and former president Tan Sri Ong Ka Ting.

Despite resigning as party vice-president and health minister after a sex video featuring him surfaced in 2007, Dr Chua has insisted he is a “winnable (sic) candidate everywhere I go.”