Non-Chinese can now join MCA as associate members

 

Non-Chinese Malaysians can now join the MCA as associate members.

This was after the Registrar of Societies (ROS) approved changes to MCA's constitution, which the party decided on in 2019.

MCA secretary-general Chong Sin Woon said the ROS also approved an amendment that party elections be held six months after a general election or 36 months after the last election, whichever is later.

"All these amendments are effective immediately.

"This also means that starting now, MCA can accept associate members from among non-Chinese," he said in a statement yesterday.

Previously in 2019, MCA deputy president Dr Mah Hang Soon said associate members have no right to vote in a meeting or assembly.

Bersatu and PAS have associate membership for non-bumiputera and non-Muslims respectively as well. Associate members of both parties don't have voting rights.

Meanwhile, Chong said lowering the membership age to 16 is being reviewed by the Home Ministry, which oversees the ROS.

The current membership age for MCA is 18.

MCA had been a dominant figure in Malaysian politics for decades. However, since 2008, it has increasingly lost ground and public support - mainly to DAP.

Umno's Padang Rengas MP Nazri Abdul Aziz remarked in 2018 that this shift meant DAP had become the representative of the Chinese community, not MCA.

"From my point of view, the party that won the most Chinese seats would be the voice of the Chinese. And that's not MCA," he said.

DAP - a multiracial party - however, has said that it represents all Malaysians.

In the 2018 general election, MCA president Wee Ka Siong was the only one to secure a Parliament seat, winning Ayer Hitam with 303 votes majority.

The party picked up a second parliamentary seat in the 2019 Tanjung Piai by-election. - Mkini