MCA Sabah to lobby for more seats

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KOTA KINABALU: MCA Sabah will lobby for more seats to help Barisan Nasional (BN) safeguard the ‘fixed deposit’ state upon re-delineation of the constituencies.

The State liaison committee chairman, Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong, said MCA Sabah would not want to be confined to the existing political boundary.

“We will lobby for more battlefields, including parliamentary seats, to help BN safeguard this ‘fixed deposit’ state.”

In addition, he said the party must strategize to win the two state seats allocated to MCA.

Wee, who is also MCA deputy president, said this in his address during the MCA Sabah State Convention 2015 at Sabah Trade Centre here yesterday.

He said it was his mission to strengthen MCA Sabah so that it could face the next general election in its best possible form.

In order to strengthen MCA Sabah, Wee had conveyed MCA central leadership’s wish to Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Aman for MCA to play a role in the Sabah State Cabinet to enable the party to address and solve the people’s problems more effectively.

“Today, Luyang assemblyman Hiew King Cheu is an upright MCA representative and our sole state assemblyman in Sabah. As such, we are all hopeful that the State Government would let him play a bigger role.”

Wee said MCA Sabah had also drawn their strategies for the coming general election and was in the process of selecting candidates.

“This is why I did not make much changes on the State liaison committee after taking over the chairmanship. My main hope is for the whole team to continue to move forward as a team and to fight our crucial ‘do-or-die’ battles in the coming general election.”

Wee said his second mission concerned none other than the welfare of Sabahans, whereby he, together with former MCA Sabah liaison committee chairman Senator Wilfred Yong, who has been appointed as the executive advisor, would thoroughly and comprehensively convey Sabahans’ needs and issues of concern to the Federal Government and Parliament.

At the same time, he said MCA Sabah would work with the BN State Government to enhance the infrastructural development in the State and to strive for more empowerment for Sabah so that the State could have more administrative power and resources to bring about better development.

Wee also urged the government to beef up coastal security measures in the State, especially in increasing the police and military personnel, patrol and when necessary, procuring equipment.

“Apart from coastal security, we must beef up efforts to reduce the crime rate in Sabah,”he said.

He said the issue of higher prices of goods in Sabah could be addressed with promises of assistance from the Transport Minister cum MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai to reduce transportation cost.

Wee said the Federal Government and the State Governments of Sabah and Sarawak would jointly formulate feasible measures to reduce prices of goods.

“I, as the minister in charge of Chinese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and MCA secretary general, Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan, as the Second International Trade and Industry Minister, will work closely with Liow in consolidating all possible resources to reduce the prices of goods in East Malaysia,”he pledged.