KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — MCA’s Goh Choong Seng has hit back at Barisan Nasional (BN) colleague Datuk Mohd Khusairi Abdul Talib, saying his party will continue to contest and defend the Tanjung Malim Parliamentary seat despite the latter’s advice.

“MCA will continue to defend the Tanjung Malim Parliamentary seat as it is a traditional MCA seat, and we will continue to field out candidate.

“MCA has never sidelined the rakyat nor voters in this constituency despite being defeated at GE14,” said Goh, also MCA’s Tanjung Malim Division, in a statement today.

“On the contrary, we pursued with our daily work and serving this area unceasingly the day after polling, and we continue to operate our service centre at Slim River all this while,” Goh added.

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This is in response to a statement made by Mohd Khusairi yesterday where he accused MCA members of trying to buy the support of other BN leaders, some even within Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, claiming such advances were made with an aim of being picked as election candidates.

He had claimed MCA had betrayed the BN coalition by abandoning them during the last elections, then urging them to instead contest in places with a majority of Chinese voters such as Kepong, Damansara, Seremban, or even Kota Melaka.

Goh, in his statement today, then reminded Mohd Khusairi that decisions such as deciding election candidates will be made by the coalition’s central leadership, and not at the branch or division level.

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“The question of which candidates are to contest the seat and where he/she is to contest is the prerogative of the central leadership. It is not a matter which can be unilaterally determined by a division chief,” he said.