Find yourself another seat to contest, Tg Malim Umno chief tells MCA

Citing an unwillingness to work with ‘traitors’, Umno’s Tanjung Malim division chief Khusairi Talib (above) has told MCA deputy president Mah Hang Soon to look elsewhere for a constituency to contest in the next general election.

Khusairi claimed that infighting between rival MCA factions to lobbying for either Mah or former MCA secretary-general Ong Ka Chuan to be the Tanjung Malim candidate for the 14th general election had cost BN the Tanjung Malim parliamentary seat, as well as the Behrang state seat.

Mah, who is now a senator and deputy education minister in the Perikatan Nasional government, was ultimately chosen to be the candidate for the parliamentary seat in GE14. However, he was defeated by PKR’s Chang Lih Kang by 5,358 votes.

“Tanjung Malim Umno will never accept someone who collaborated with traitors who caused the collapse of the BN government at the federal and state levels during the 14th general election.

“We also don’t want the sabotage to be repeated in the 15th general election,” Khusairi said in a Facebook post on Monday.

He was responding to photos posted on Facebook over the past week that showed Tanjung Malim MCA leaders, including Mah (photo, below), making visits and distributing food to an Orang Asli community in Behrang, and visiting a former Umno leader who had defected to Bersatu after the election.

Khusairi said Tanjung Malim MCA chief Goh Chong Seng also sent a hamper and RM100 in duit raya to several Umno branch chiefs before Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

He described MCA’s activities as a “charade” to “buy back the soul of Malay leaders and atone for their sin of boycotting the BN candidate from MCA itself during the 14th general election”.

He claimed the photos are Mah’s attempts to show that he has reconciled with Tanjong Malim MCA’s newly elected leaders, and is still in the running to contest the seat in the next election.

Khusairi also declared that 60 out of 63 Umno branches in Tanjong Malim have approved a motion for Umno to contest the Tanjung Malim seat, instead of MCA, in the 15th general election.

The Tanjong Malim Umno division then unanimously approved the resolution and has forwarded it to the BN’s central leadership for a decision.

Khusairi, who is also the Tanjong Malim BN chief, advised Mah not to waste time in Tanjong Malim and to find another seat to contest, particularly those that were contested by Gerakan before the party left the BN coalition.

“After Gerakan left BN, some of the seats that can be contested by MCA in Perak include Teluk Intan, Beruas, and Taiping. And that is if the MCA deputy president insists on contesting in Perak.

“The great MCA can contest in many other seats in the other states too, including Kepong, Damansara, Seremban and Kota Melaka, where a majority of the voters are Chinese,” Khusairi added, and noted that Tanjong Malim is a Malay-majority seat.

Malays comprised 56 percent of the voters in Tanjong Malim during the 14th general election, while Chinese made up 26 percent, Indians 13 percent, and other ethnic groups six percent. - Mkini