MCA Youth urges action against ex-staff over alleged insensitive remark

[Editor's note: An earlier version of the article has been amended to reflect MCA Youth information chief Neow Choo Seong's latest statement. He earlier claimed that Johor MCA Facebook account was hacked when it uploaded a controversial post, but has since retracted the comment following Johor MCA's clarification.]

MCA Youth information chief Neow Choo Seong has urged the party's Johor chapter to take action against a former staff member for uploading a controversial statement on its Facebook account.

The statement in Mandarin, which has been taken down from Johor MCA Facebook, has drawn brickbats for allegedly being anti-Islam.

"According to Johor MCA’s explanation, it has come to light that the page was instead compromised by a former administrator.

"I also urge Johor MCA to take stern action against the individual responsible for tarnishing the party’s name," he told Malaysiakini today.

Earlier, Neow in a phone conversation with Malaysiakini denied that MCA would ever make such a Facebook post and claimed that the Johor MCA Facebook account has been hacked.

He had since clarified that this was not the case after Johor MCA confirmed that the controversial post was uploaded by a former administrator of its social media account - who had long left the office.

Earlier, Johor MCA apologised for the matter, attributing it to the "unintentional" actions of the former staffer.

They confirmed that the administrator had been removed from accessing the page, which is now solely managed by a new administrator.

MCA respects sensitivity

Elaborating, Neow reiterated that MCA, as a moderate party, would never issue such a statement.

"We understand the sensitivity and never come up with such an insensitive statement.

"So, we see this as something serious. Things need to be done to clear MCA’s good name," he concluded.

Meanwhile, Umno Youth Chief Dr Akmal Saleh condemned the incident, demanding an apology within 24 hours.

He warned that failure to comply would result in a police report being lodged.

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