PETALING JAYA: Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi has expressed confidence that MCA will not leave Barisan Nasional.
However, the Rengit assemblyman said the BN party was right to feel sidelined in the government, given that it was given no role at the federal level.
“But that’s the reality that Umno had to endure when BN was in the Perikatan Nasional government. Umno’s hierarchy was disrespected at the time,” he said, referring to how Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was not given any Cabinet post in the then government.
“However, MCA still has posts in the Johor and Melaka executive councils. So leaving BN is not a good option,” he said in a Facebook post.
He warned MCA against leaving BN, for fear of “losing what you already have in pursuit of what you fail to reach”.
Puad, who is also Johor state assembly speaker, was nonetheless confident that MCA would not quit the coalition, given the decades of partnership the party had formed with Umno.
“And all the more with MCA being led by Wee Ka Siong. He’s a BN die-hard. So these stories of MCA possibly leaving BN are just being manipulated by certain parties,” he said.
Earlier, Malaysiakini quoted an MCA source as saying the party’s top leadership was under pressure from the grassroots to leave BN.
The source, reportedly a top party leader, said this pressure mounted after Zahid, the BN chairman, said the coalition will ally with Pakatan Harapan in the 16th general election.
He said the grassroots were unhappy that MCA has been sidelined in the government. However, he said, the party’s central committee has yet to decide on the matter.
MCA secretary-general Chong Sin Woon later rubbished the report, telling FMT there have been “no such discussions within the party”.
Another MCA leader, who asked not to be identified, claimed that certain quarters were trying to divide BN, which the party co-founded in 1973.
