1,600 delegates sign petition for MCA EGM

Three party officials who initiated the petition say they are confident of support for a motion to retract the “no government posts” decision.

KUALA LUMPUR: MCA’s latest attempt to retract its “no government posts” decision has received the support of about 1,600 central delegates, who have signed a petition to call an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on the matter.

Mah Hang Soon, a MCA central committee member and one of the three who initiated the EGM move, said the number of signatures collected had surpassed the one-third threshold required under the party constitution.

“We only needed 800 signatures, but now we have double the figure and still counting,” he told a press conference at Wisma MCA today. “We are going to submit the requisition to the secretary-general tomorrow.”

MCA has 2,385 central delegates. Mah said that in certain states 99% of the central delegates had inked the EGM proposal. He mentioned Kelantan and Pahang as being among those states.

Mah and his group proposed only one motion to be tabled at the EGM, which is to allow MCA members to assume government posts.

The move is widely seen as an attempt to pave the way for the new MCA leadership to rejoin the federal cabinet after a motion on this was defeated by a slim margin at an EGM last October.

In the October EGM, however, a majority of the delegates voted in favour of motions to allow MCA members to take up posts in local and state governments.

It is widely speculated that the EGM being sought is targeted to coincide with the MCA anniversary celebrations, which will come at the end of this month.

Asked whether the timing was improper with the Kajang by-election looming, Mah said no one would ever know the best time for the EGM to be held.

“However, much of the support we received on the ground signals that there is a strong desire for the EGM to be held,” he said.

Mah did not reply directly when asked why only one motion would be tabled the proposed EGM. He merely said that different considerations would arise at different times.

Pulai MCA division chief Chia Song Cheng said he was confident that the motion would be passed.

“This is the first time in MCA history that a EGM requisition is backed by so many people,” he said.

Former MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek and vice president Gan Ping Sieu were against the idea of holding an EGM when the party should be concentrating on the Kajang by-election, in which its candidate would stand against opposition heavyweight Anwar Ibrahim.