Former MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek agreed with an Umno leader's urging for BN component parties to ramp up efforts to win elections.

He said the current batch of MCA leaders must be just as aggressive as him during his tenure as president against DAP.

"(When I was president) I was very hard on DAP. I even took on DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng in a debate. Never before (has a MCA leader) done so.

"It took me, someone who is not fluent in Chinese, to challenge them to a debate. I believe I did the right thing.

"The Chinese want to see a strong leader. We must be hard," the former health minister told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

Chua said this after being asked to comment on Umno Youth deputy chief Khairul Azwan Harun's speech during the Umno general assembly earlier this month, where the latter urged BN component parties to take risks and tackle the opposition head on.

Khairul Azwan also urged the Chinese community to reflect on their support for DAP, warning the community that it might alienate them from the rest of society.

Pointing fingers won't help

Meanwhile, Chua said Umno leaders should avoid pointing fingers at BN component parties over their poor performance during the last general election and instead reflect on why certain communities were shunning the coalition.

In particular, Chua said Umno must be introspective and understand why they were repulsive to Chinese voters.

"Umno leaders must contemplate on why the Chinese community, who were once fervent supporters of BN, suddenly decided a change of government was necessary in 2008 and 2013.

"You can't blame people for not voting for you. You should instead introspect. Is it our problem? Are we fulfilling what people want? That would be the right approach.

"Pointing fingers won't result in Chinese votes returning to BN. Umno leaders need to change the way they think," he said.

He added that those who pointing fingers, were usually those who were "not very clever".

Chinese also in need of introspection

Chua said that the Chinese community was also in need of introspection and must evaluate the results of rejecting BN during the 2008 and 2013 elections.

He said he had publicly predicted in 2013 that Umno will end up working with PAS if BN component parties were not adequately represented in government.

"Don't forget history. In 2013, who supported PAS? Was it MCA or DAP? At the time, DAP urged the Chinese to support PAS... Because they were different from Umno.

"I can now say that my prediction was not just right, it was 100 percent correct," he said.

He said the Chinese community must now reflect on whether they they would be successful in a third attempt to unseat the ruling party.

"There are 222 parliamentary seats, of which only 45 seats has a Chinese majority where the contest is (usually) between DAP and MCA... The Chinese must consider whether voting DAP is as good as wasting their votes," he said.