KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 17 — At a time when Umno appears to be hunkering down to consolidate its Malay power base, MCA’s Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat hopes to open up his party’s doors to be more racially inclusive.

For the one-term former MCA president seeking re-election on Saturday, the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition’s founding partner must win over support from the country’s other ethnic groups if it is to secure political relevance at the next national polls due in 2018.

Ong believed MCA would be able to gradually change its current set-up as a Chinese-only party and eventually accept other races into its ranks.

“Hopefully, one day we might evolve, we might be getting there, so this is going to be an evolutionary exercise,” he told The Malay Mail Online in a one-on-one interview after unveiling his campaign manifesto.

The veteran politician admitted that the process would take time, which was why he touted setting up a multiracial club for the Chinese-based party’s supporters if he regains control of the fragmented MCA.

He hoped to introduce the 1Malaysia Communities Alliance Club (1MCA Club), which he said would involve outreach programmes that would go beyond MCA members.

“In order to break that kind of ethnic silos, I believe in embracing all. We shouldn’t be continuously confined within the Chinese community, though MCA is an all-Chinese party.

“But once again, I would like to reiterate we are not a racist party. And we have had Malaysian interests at heart since the early years of the party’s inception,” the ex-transport minister said of the 64-year-old MCA.

He added that those goals were enshrined in the party’s constitution.

Ong said the 1MCA Club would be “open to all”; but said it was an outreach initiative rather than a non-Chinese membership recruitment drive.

The former Pandan MP’s proposal for a 1MCA Club appears to be an extension of the 1Malaysia Community Alliance (1MCA) Foundation he had mooted in 2009 while still in office as the party president.

According to MCA’s website, the foundation provides outreach services such as health screenings and crisis relief.

Ong has also pledged to reach out to overseas Malaysians from all ethnicities by revving up the MCA clubs abroad.

“I think it’s time for us to activate or form overseas MCA clubs, embracing them, hear them out, also at the same time bringing them onboard whenever we need to brainstorm issues of our common interest, Malaysian interest,” he said.

Ong was elected MCA president in 2008, but an internal struggle led to fresh polls in 2010 where he lost in a three-cornered fight against his then-deputy, Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek.

On Saturday, Ong will face the incumbent MCA deputy president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and vice-president Gan Ping Sieu in the bid for the top post in the party.

The party polls will be crucial for MCA as it seeks to recover from its worst polls performance and aim for better results in the 14th general elections.

MCA only won seven federal seats and 11 state seats in the 13th general election and has continued to refuse Cabinet posts since the May 5 results.