KOTA KINABALU: MCA’s popularity in Sabah is one of the reasons why the state’s Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership should consider increasing the number of seats for the party, according to its president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek.
“We have not gone into the details of how many seats but as I have said very clearly, the party is not making an unreasonable demand,” he said.
“We are not even demanding, we are just saying that there is a need for the state BN to look into this request because of the increasing number of MCA members and their high degree of commitment in the cause of BN,” he added.
Speaking to reporters after officiating at the Sabah MCA annual general meeting here yesterday, Chua said MCA is hopeful that the Sabah BN leadership would consider its request to have additional representation in either the State Assembly or Parliament.
In the State Government, MCA is represented by its Sabah chairman Datuk Edward Khoo who is Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department and Kepayan assemblyman.
According to Chua, the MCA central leadership is happy with the political development of Sabah MCA which now has 25 divisions and about 30,000 members throughout the state.
He said MCA’s popularity was growing because some of the people felt that a Peninsular Malaysia-based party would better represent them in issues involving the Federal Government.
“People in Sabah feel that there may be a better representation if they have a peninsular-based party and not just a local based party because there are a lot of problems within the state that have more to do with the central Government,” he said.
On Sunday, MCA Youth chief Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong also requested for more MCA representation in the State Government and allocation of more seats.
Meanwhile, Chua denied that he had belittled the Muslim civilization in his speech at the Kedah MCA convention.
“When I spoke at the MCA Kedah convention, I reminded the Chinese to be a bit cautious about supporting PAS because PAS’ emphasis is on religious development rather than social-economic development and this will have a great impact on national development,” he explained.
He said the contents of his speech were “twisted” by Penang Chief Minister cum DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng, adding that he never spoke about or belittled the Muslim civilization and Muslim scholars in knowledge development, including science and mathematics.
“I told them that if they had the opportunity, they should read the book ‘Malaysia And The Club of Doom’ by a Muslim lawyer, Syed Akbar Ali. What I said was based on what Syed Akbar wrote about the fate of 57 countries whose citizens were mostly Muslims,” he said.