KLANG: It is mandatory for all MCA members who are 21 and above to become registered voters, says deputy president Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong.
He said the party was now helping members who had yet to register with the Election Commission (EC) to do so.
“This is very important. People have to discharge their responsibilities as citizens and vote in the general election to ensure democracy,” he said during a visit to the Klang MCA service centre in Pandamaran here yesterday.
Dr Wee received the profiles of five divisional leaders who were nominated as potential candidates for the Klang parliamentary seat and its three state seats in the next general election.
The five are division head Datuk Teh Kim Poo, vice-chief Datuk Ching Eu Boon, deputy secretary Lee Chen Seng, Youth chief Tee Hooi Ling and Youth deputy chief Tan Bok Koon.
Telling the grassroots leaders and members to start preparing for the polls, Dr Wee said: “MCA is coming back stronger and better. We will put up a tough fight in the general election and will not give up.”
He said the people had regained confidence in the party and acknowledged its hard work and capability.
He added that MCA recently welcomed more than 100 aspiring businessmen, aged between 27 and 35, as members.
Later at the Strengthening the Teaching and Learning of the Chinese Language Seminar at Wisma MCA, Dr Wee said the party was in the progress of setting up a committee to oversee issues related to Chinese education including its teaching methods, contents and structure.
He said the committee – which members include educators and experts in the teaching professions – would also study the impact on the Chinese primary schools, brought by the Malaysia Education Blueprint.
He said the party would continue to ensure that Chinese education remained to be significant in the country’s multi-stream education system, and maintained a high standard.
In Port Dickson on Friday night, Dr Wee said the Negri Sembilan MCA must come up with foolproof strategies to wrest some of the state seats it lost to the Opposition and be represented in the state government.
The party, which until 2008 had two representatives in the state exco line-up, must go all out to get back into the state administration so that it could effectively raise issues concerning the community, said Dr Wee, who is state liaison committee chief, at a fundraising event.
MCA lost nine of the state constituencies it contested in the 2008 general election.
Dr Wee said many Malaysians were becoming weary of the Pakatan Rakyat, especially with open disagreements between DAP and PAS “which have become a daily affair”.
-The Star
