MCA not ready for snap polls, says Liow
By Yow Hong Chieh
KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 — MCA needs “a little bit more time” to finalise its line-up of candidates and ensure divisional readiness before the next general election is called, party deputy president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said today.
“At the national level, we’re quite okay but at the divisional level, we have to be more ready,” he told reporters at Brickfields here today.
Liow said every MCA division has been told to set up an operations centre and boost services to help people on the ground as it was not just an issue of candidates but the party’s image as well.
He said the party needed to show that it was transforming to meet the needs of the people after voters overwhelmingly rejected MCA during the last general election.
“Party transformation is important ... because in 308, people sent us a message,” he said, using shorthand to refer to the last general election that was held in March 2008.
Liow added that MCA was also looking for quite a bit of “new blood” to field in the next general election as part of the party’s efforts to project a fresh image.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak recently hinted in a speech to Selangor Umno that the next general election is “just around the corner”.
The Malaysian Insider understands, however, that Najib is likely to delay snap polls until the end of this year or early 2012 as his party hunts for funds to finance a campaign to court Bumiputera and Indian voters and secure a two-thirds parliamentary majority.
It is understood Umno’s coffers were depleted after BN spent some RM500 million for the April 16 Sarawak election.
Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told The Malaysian Insider that he believes Umno’s increasingly ultra-Malay stance as well as the emergence of a sex video aimed at discrediting PR’s image are definite signs that general elections will be called by August.
But BN insiders say Najib is cautious about calling elections soon as he wants to regain the coalition’s two-thirds parliamentary majority which now appears impossible with the Chinese snub continuing in the Sarawak election.
Chinese-based MCA took a battering in the historic general election — which also robbed BN of its customary two-thirds majority — when the party won only 15 out of 40 parliamentary seats it contested.
KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 — MCA needs “a little bit more time” to finalise its line-up of candidates and ensure divisional readiness before the next general election is called, party deputy president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said today.
“At the national level, we’re quite okay but at the divisional level, we have to be more ready,” he told reporters at Brickfields here today.
Liow said every MCA division has been told to set up an operations centre and boost services to help people on the ground as it was not just an issue of candidates but the party’s image as well.
He said the party needed to show that it was transforming to meet the needs of the people after voters overwhelmingly rejected MCA during the last general election.
“Party transformation is important ... because in 308, people sent us a message,” he said, using shorthand to refer to the last general election that was held in March 2008.
Liow added that MCA was also looking for quite a bit of “new blood” to field in the next general election as part of the party’s efforts to project a fresh image.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak recently hinted in a speech to Selangor Umno that the next general election is “just around the corner”.
The Malaysian Insider understands, however, that Najib is likely to delay snap polls until the end of this year or early 2012 as his party hunts for funds to finance a campaign to court Bumiputera and Indian voters and secure a two-thirds parliamentary majority.
It is understood Umno’s coffers were depleted after BN spent some RM500 million for the April 16 Sarawak election.
Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told The Malaysian Insider that he believes Umno’s increasingly ultra-Malay stance as well as the emergence of a sex video aimed at discrediting PR’s image are definite signs that general elections will be called by August.
But BN insiders say Najib is cautious about calling elections soon as he wants to regain the coalition’s two-thirds parliamentary majority which now appears impossible with the Chinese snub continuing in the Sarawak election.
Chinese-based MCA took a battering in the historic general election — which also robbed BN of its customary two-thirds majority — when the party won only 15 out of 40 parliamentary seats it contested.
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