JOHOR BARU, Sept 26 — MCA’s Datuk Seri Wee Jeck Seng has reserved his comments on the possibility of him vying for the Tanjung Piai seat again in the impending by-election, following an Umno leader’s opposition against automatically letting the Chinese-dominant party contest it.
Wee said he will wait for any decision by the Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership, even as the Muafakat Nasional pact between Umno and PAS continues to assert its pressure for a candidate to come from the two Malay-Muslim parties instead.
“As MCA members, we are guided by BN and such decisions will be made by the top leadership.
“I will follow protocol and wait for the BN leadership’s decision before commenting on my candidacy or matters regarding the Tanjung Piai by-election,” Wee told Malay Mail yesterday.
The 55-year-old former Tanjung Piai MP said it is still too early to comment on the by-election, as the various BN component parties have yet to deliberate the matter.
When asked about his earlier comments that he was keen to contest the by-election, Wee said it was only natural as he was the former MP and is familiar with the area.
“My contention is that I have held the parliamentary seat before and had also contested in the previous general election in May last year,” said Wee, who is also a local in the area.
The Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat fell vacant after deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Md Farid, 42, died on Saturday from a heart attack.
In the 14th general election, the Tanjung Piai Bersatu deputy chief won the seat with just a 524-vote majority over MCA’s Wee.
The parliamentary constituency, a known MCA stronghold in the past, had been traditionally contested by DAP and MCA since 2004.
For the general election last year, however, DAP yielded the seat to Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia as part of seat negotiations within the Pakatan Harapan coalition.
Yesterday, Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin urged Umno and PAS to avoid being trapped in narrow “political thinking” by assuming that MCA should automatically contest the Tanjung Piai by-election.
The former Johor mentri besar said they should not resort to fielding an MCA candidate just to prove their support for multicultural politics.
When asked further about Tanjung Piai MCA division’s support for the by-election if the candidate comes from Muafakat Nasional’s Umno or PAS, Wee declined to comment.
He said his division is also awaiting further instructions from the party leadership on their support.
“Let’s wait for the decision from the BN leadership first,” said Wee.
