MCA asks for three more Sabah seats

KOTA KINABALU -  MCA hopes to be allowed to contest more seats in Sabah in the 13th general election, and the party has made a request to the top Barisan Nasional leadership for additional two state seats and one parliamentary seat, said its president Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek.

“I have personally met Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, and made the request known to them,” Chua told reporters at the MCA state level anniversary celebration here on Saturday night.

“Of course we cannot disclose the seats that we have requested. Under our BN mutual understanding and respect, we will not openly say which seats. It is bad for the spirit of cooperation among the BN parties,” he said.

Chua said the party felt that after 22 years in Sabah the request for additional seats is justifiable.

“As rightly pointed out by our state chairman, the number of our members has been increasing, until now we have about 40,000 and as a Chinese based party, I would say ours is still the biggest but unfortunately we have only one seat,” he said.

“So we feel that if there is no more additional seat MCA growth in Sabah will be at this level only. We can never expand further. So when we ask for additional state and parliament seats we feel that it is right is justifiable and we do this for the sake of BN because we want to form the government and we feel that if we are given the chance to contest, our chances of winning are higher,” Chua said adding that MCA is usually very organised and has done enough work both in Peninsular Malaysia and in Sabah.

When asked if Najib and Musa had responded to the request, Chua disclosed that decisions will only be made when election draws near.

“So we appeal to the Chief Minister of Sabah to use his political wisdom to make a wise decision not for the sake of MCA but for the sake of BN in Sabah.

Meanwhile, Sabah MCA liaison chief Datuk Edward Khoo said the party  must be given additional seats to contest in the coming general election so that it will have a stronger platform to serve the Chinese community in the state.

He said the party has been in Sabah for 22 years and has a good track record since it started to contest in the 2004 election, and has been able to defend the Kapayan state constituency the party was given.

Khoo, who is the Kapayan assemblyman, said MCA Sabah was launced in Tawau in 1991 and has since expanded to 25 Parliamentary constituencies on the state.

“Our request for additional state and parliament seats is reasonable,” he said.

Khoo also predicted that the 13th general election would be a challenging one as there will be many parties vying for certain constituencies.

He urged Sabahans to vote wisely and be wary about casting their vote for the opposition which is headed by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Khoo claimed that in 1994, Anwar who was the Education Minister at the time, had come to Sabah and promised the Chinese community in the state a RM5 million allocation for the development of the Chinese community’s education.

“But that is only lip service and it was only fulfilled in 2000 when MCA president personally asked for the allocation to be given to the Chinese community in Sabah,” he said.

by Nancy Lai