MCA to amend constitution to strengthen recruitment
MCA president Wee Ka Siong has proposed to amend the party's constitution to strengthen the recruitment of multiracial associate members.
At the 66th MCA annual general assembly today, he said MCA had already opened its affiliate membership to all since the establishment of the party...
MCA president Wee Ka Siong has proposed to amend the party's constitution to strengthen the recruitment of multiracial associate members.
At the 66th MCA annual general assembly today, he said MCA had already opened its affiliate membership to all since the establishment of the party.
"Although MCA is synonymous with the Chinese, but we (adopt) openness by fighting for the fate of all races," he said, stressing that the party has never sidelined other ethnic groups.
"I still remember, an Indian man was among our earliest associate members," he said.
He hoped the acceptance of MCA associate members will set a new chapter in the political arena.
Yesterday, MCA deputy president Dr Mah Hang Soon said associate members have no right to vote in a meeting or assembly.
Meanwhile, Wee also said MCA will amend the party constitution to lower the membership age from 18 to 16.
"This is in line with the Dewan Rakyat passed the constitutional amendment to lower the voting age from 21 to 18," he said.
MCA has had trouble recruiting youth members.
As of Oct 31, MCA has a total of 150,187 youth members out of 1.07 million members in total.
Of these youth members, only 4,870 are below 25-years-old according to the 2019 MCA Youth secretary-general report.
The AGM, which was attended by 1,499 (59.39 percent) out of 2,524 central delegates, later passed both the amendments to the party constitution.
In a press conference later, Wee (photo) said only three delegates opposed to both the lowering of membership age and affiliate membership, while one abstained.
He admitted it is challenging for the government and opposition parties to recruit young members.
"But it is comparatively easier for government parties as they utilise their official post to organise events in schools. They can get in touch with the students," he said.
However, Wee said the opposition parties are faced with restrictions when entering schools.
"The government is not willing to (subscribe to the principle of) level-playing field."
Wee said he rarely received invitations to attend school events in his Ayer Hitam constituency.
"The schools which are willing to invite me, their headmasters told me to apply for permission from the government. It is a tedious process. Then I told the headmasters not to bother about it," he said, adding that the BN government was not as strict.
During the AGM last year, MCA passed a resolution to push for the dissolution of BN and form a new alliance.
Back then, Wee refused to respond on whether PAS will join the new alliance.
When he was asked today about the long journey of the past year, Wee said politics is very dynamic and the party will keep on moving.
"Yes, we passed the resolution (last year) and we had tried. After that, we went back to the central committee (CC) for deliberation and we moved on.
"That's why we followed the procedure. No one expected MCA with one parliamentary seat increased 100 percent to two seats now.
"In politics, you cannot predict and you have to be dynamic. Our stand is very clear based on the underlined principle, we can work with anybody," he added.
MCA, which contested 37 parliamentary seats in the 14th general election, suffered a huge loss when it won only one seat.
It has another seat after the landslide victory in the Tanjung Piai by-election.
Earlier today, Wee was adamant that for the party, Muafakat Nasional is just a "spirit of togetherness" for the opposition, while Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan said it is exploring the possibility of formally registering as a coalition.
The technical committee of Muafakat Nasional is jointly headed by Mohamad and PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.
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