Columnist Ridhuan Tee Abdullah has proposed that the MCA field a Chinese Muslim candidate, in a bid to win the Malay hearts and capture the seat from PKR.

The academician - in an opinion piece in Sinar Harian today - said Malays account for 48 percent of the population in the state constituency, whereas there are 41 percent Chinese and 10 percent Indians.

He said PKR has won the seat since 2008 and what's more, if it had a Chinese majority which backs the opposition, the BN coalition would be faring much worse then.

“Hence, reflect on this MCA. MCA has never been strong as it only won seats in Malay-majority areas. What is puzzling is that MCA is confident that it could recapture Kajang,” he said in the posting.

Ridhuan said if MCA contested, he is confident that the number of votes it can garner would be small, since the Malays who previously supported MCA would not be voting for the party when the Malays have Anwar Ibrahim ( left ).

“If we put a Malay (Chinese Muslim), certainly the Malays would not reject (the candidate). The purpose is to reduce PKR's majority, as the chances of BN winning are fairly remote,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Berita Harian reported that some 3,000 former PKR members will be campaigning against the de facto leader, Anwar Ibrahim, in his bid to retain the Kajang seat.

According to ex-Parti Keadilan Nasional founder Ng Lum Yong, the former members will have operation centres up beginning Feb 10, to inform voters of Anwar's personality and rhetorics.

“The operation centres are where they can find answers, or reply over the slander meted out by the opposition,” he said.