JOHOR BARU: MCA members must be strong and united to ensure that the party wins in the Johor state election, says secretary-general Datuk Chong Sin Woon.
He hoped that they would work together for the sake of the party rather than focusing on personal agendas.
“This will benefit the people as well as MCA and Barisan Nasional,” he said after attending a closed-door meeting for Barisan component parties with coalition chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi at the Johor Umno headquarters here yesterday.
Umno deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan and Johor Barisan chief Datuk Hasni Mohammad also attended the meeting and gave speeches.
Chong said during Ahmad Zahid’s speech, he made it clear that all Barisan’s component parties must win big to ensure that Johor was administered by a multi-racial government.
This meant that all Barisan component parties needed to work hard to gain support from all races to realise that mission, he added.
When asked whether MCA would field more young candidates in Johor due to the increase in voters aged between 18 and 20, Chong replied: “Of course.”
“We will definitely have more young candidates compared to the previous general election,” Chong said, adding that the seat allocation for Johor’s 56 seats had yet to be finalised.
He noted that Ahmad Zahid also said Barisan was ready to go it alone in the state election.
“However, the doors have not closed on its cooperation with PAS and more discussions need to be held on this matter,” Chong said.
Meanwhile, Johor MCA Youth chief Ling Tian Soon, who was also at the meeting, said he believed that the campaigning standard operating procedure might be similar to the one for the Melaka election.
“There may be another round of online campaigning, similar to the Melaka polls where physical gatherings and ceramah were not allowed.
“Our experience in the Melaka election will help us in the Johor polls,” he added.
Ling, who is also the Ayer Hitam MCA division chief, said the party would make sure that its teams and supporters followed the Covid-19 SOP and did frequent self-tests for the sake of the people’s safety.