MCA president Liow Tiong Lai has rubbished Parti Pribumi Bersatu's (Bersatu) claim that a small vote swing in the next general election could see 45 BN seats go to the opposition.

He said the claim by Bersatu protem committee president Muhyiddin Yassin is merely an assumption and is meant to distract BN, but the ruling coalition would not take the bait.

What is most important, he said, is that the government stays on course with its transformation agenda.

“We are more on the positive energy. We are more on (being) constructive. We are developing this country on the right track.

“So these (claims) are all divisive. These are all distracting the focus of the government. I think the government and also BN parties will have to be focused on delivering results.

“Promises will be kept. We will ensure that development can continue and be intensified, so I am confident with the commitment of the BN component parties.

“We are more focused now. We will not be sidetracked by words and assumptions that are meant to reduce our effectiveness in administering the country,” he told reporters when met at an event in Kuala Lumpur today.

He was asked to comment on Muhyiddin’s claims on Friday night that 67 BN-held parliamentary seats are considered ‘shaky’.

Of these, Muhyiddin said 45 seats could fall to the opposition with a mere four percent vote swing in the opposition’s favour.

Most of these seats are currently held by Umno, claimed the leader of the Umno splinter party.

Seat allocation 'by consensus'

On another issue, Liow said there has yet to be any negotiations on seat allocations for the next general election, and any such talks would be decided by consensus amongst BN parties.

He said this when asked about Bandar Tun Razak Umno youth’s demand last week that the Malay nationalist party should the one fielding the BN candidate at the constituency.

The Bandar Tun Razak seat is traditionally contested by MCA for the BN coalition.

“We are happy to see that we have a very good spirit of BN based on consensus. In any of these or any other negotiation, it has to be based on consensus.

“So at the moment, we haven’t discussed on this yet. We are focused on our preparations for the next general election, and we are focusing on our candidates, as well as preparing our ground, to strengthen our services, as well as representation at the ground level.

“We are also focusing on delivering results to the rakyat,” Liow said.

'MCA to help stateless'

On reports that some 100,000 ethnic Chinese in Malaysia are stateless despite being in Malaysia for three generations, Liow said all MCA divisions and branches have been mobilised to assist them, including setting up mobile teams to do so.

Previously, the Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (Hua Zong) claimed these stateless persons are generally senior citizens and have poor command of the Malay language, and are hence unable to apply for citizenship.

“There are a lot of problems in terms of citizenship, because there is red tape involved and also conditions to be fulfilled.

“For those who don’t meet the conditions, we will help them and see how they can meet those conditions,” he said.