KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 6 — Former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin told MCA to leave Barisan Nasional if it no longer has faith in the coalition, after a leader in the Chinese party suggested it review its continued membership.
Khairy said MCA should engage in some self-reflection for its impending internal poll, telling the party it was not blameless in BN’s defeat in the general election and its subsequent collapse, the Malaysiakini news portal reported.
The 13-member coalition was reduced to just founding members Umno, MIC, and MCA as the others abandoned it in the aftermath of the general election.
The unsuccessful candidate to be Umno president also suggested that BN consider an alternative to MCA in order to tap the Chinese community’s support.
“Maybe MCA is already beyond fixing, maybe, maybe,” he was quoted as saying at an event in Melawati today
“If you (MCA) are not interested to be with us, then thank you, goodbye, we’ll find somebody else.”
Yesterday, MCA presidential candidate Gan Ping Sieu suggested the party hold a referendum to determine its future in BN.
Since May 9, MCA leaders have attacked Umno for BN’s maiden election defeat and declared the coalition “dead”.
Despite the rhetoric, current party leaders have declined to take MCA out of the coalition; others such as Gerakan have since gone independent.
They claim that it was not necessary for MCA to leave the coalition by saying it was effectively defunct.
