KUALA LUMPUR – MCA is set to make several significant changes in its Annual General Meeting this year and one of it is amending several articles or sub-articles in the party constitution.
Party secretary-general Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan (pix) revealed that most of the amendments are related to the existing party election or party voting system.
“In the past, the central leadership is being elected by the central delegates of around 2,400 but after we amend Article 21 of the party constitution, the voter base for the MCA’s central election will be extended to divisional delegates.
“This means from a 2,400 delegates voting base, it will now be some 33,000 delegates voting for central leadership,” Ong said during a media briefing at the party headquarters earlier today.
Ong explained that the rationale for the move is to allow more participation from party members in the party election, instead of merely 2,400 delegates.
“However, the main objective of the move is to enable each member have a say in who they wish to be the party leaders, greatly reinforcing one of the party transformation plan of ‘One Member One Vote’,” he said.
He added that the expanded delegates system may be able to rejuvenate some of the inactive braches as more members would be actively striving to be divisional delegates.
Ong pointed out that the last time MCA did any major amendments to its party constitution was back in 2004 where the constitution was amended to limit the party president tenure to not more than three terms or nine years.
“That is the last time we made any major changes to the party constitution with minor amendments also done subsequently and one of it is to allow the party central committee to delay the party election from the original 42 months to 36 months after any general elections,” Ong said.
Ong then stressed that party’s AGM is still the official platform for making any amendments to the party constitution.
NON-CHINESE
Asked if the party would also be amending its constitution that will allow for non-Chinese to join the party, Ong said he is aware of such proposal by the youth chief Datuk Chong Sin Woon but at the moment the party would not be making any amendment on the article related to it.
He explained and stressed that such decision is something that cannot be decided by the party’s central committee, instead, it is something that need the approval of all party members especially the grassroots given that some of them have been with the party when it started.
Ong announced that this year’s AGM will be adopting a new format where instead of the usual a one-day meeting on a Sunday … the meeting this year will be held over two days on Nov 12 and 13.
“We decided to have one more extra day is to allow those from other states to have sufficient time to travel back to their respective states after the meeting as well as more time for the delegates to debate issues that have been raised.
“Therefore, we will be starting this year’s AGM on Saturday evening with the presidential address followed by debate session and the session will resume the next day until the meeting is adjourned,” Ong said, adding that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak will be coming on Sunday to officiate the AGM.
“We did not invite Najib to come on Saturday evening because we will be amending some of the party constitutions,” he explained.
THE SUN DAILY
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.