Tuntutan MCA Penampang

Penampang: MCA Penampang urged the party leadership to amend the constitution to accept only divisional leaders as candidates for general elections.

This was among nine resolutions passed during the division's annual general meeting at its at its premises at Beverly Hills Plaza, Friday.

In his speech, MCA Penampang chief, Datuk Paul Kong also urged the Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership to replace elected representatives who are not performing but merely looking for projects.

He said presently many elected representatives were not doing their job well and that some never even visited their constituencies.

"Occasionally, when they do turun padang (go to the ground) it is just to show their face! Many prefer to spend their time in comfortable air-cond offices, cari jalan (seek fortunes) and projects!

"Some also day-dream of being promoted to full Minister or Deputy Chief Minister. All these YBs are bad apples for our BN government and I hope they will be replaced soon by real hardworking YBs," he said.

He said some candidates would promise everything during election campaigns to gain votes but would forget them after being elected.

"Some being outsiders would promise to move into their constituency after they've won the election. But after being elected, they forget their promises.

"They would stay away from their constituencies for fear that people will come knocking on their door everyday for help. This type of YBs are very irresponsible and they are actually evading their duties.

Some YBs will reason that they have the PKR (People Development Leader) and other officials to help them carry out their duties while they serve from their air-conditioned office," he said.

"I urge the central leadership to take note and only consider local leaders to stand as candidates in future, in their respective constituencies and the divisions. The candidates must also be proposed and endorsed by their respective divisions.

"The last general election had taught us a big lesson and we must learn from it in order to win back the support of the people. Usually, the wrong choice of candidates also contribute to our defeat," he said.

Other resolutions passed by the division were calling for the amendment of the party constitution to allow for direct election of state chairmen by divisional delegates from each state.

Currently, all MCA state liaison chairmen are appointed by the party's central leadership.

The other resolutions were fully supporting Najib's leadership and his concept of "1Malaysia, People First, Action Now" as well as fully supporting the leadership of MCA President Dato Seri Ong Tee Keat, the leadership of Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Hj Aman and his newly-reshuffled Cabinet, calling for the Senatorship vacated by Datuk Robert Chew to be retained in Sabah, and supporting Division Chairman, Datuk Paul Kong Sing Chu to be appointed to the post.

The division also called for the Central and State leaderships to lobby for more posts and positions for MCA members as well as for BN Penampang to hold more regular round-table meetings in order to strengthen the relationship between BN component parties in Penampang.

The other resolution called on the relevant authorities to create one Chinese Kapitan post to cover such places like Beverly Hills, Taman Penampang and Jalan Bundusan area.

Besides this, Kong also urged the central leadership to provide more resources directly to his division to strengthen its position to face future challenges, especially now that the division is also the only division in Sabah having a State constituency to look after.

He noted that the two councillor posts left vacant by Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) after it pulled out of BN last September were given to Sabah MCA leaders i.e. Robert Chin and David Tan.

"I express my biggest thanks to Datuk Hajiji Mohd Nor, the Minister of Local Government and Housing for their appointments," he said.

Later, he received the applications of 121 new members from Penampang.

Also present at the occasion were MCA Penampang adviser, Senator Dato' Dr How Kok Choong, its deputy chairman, Robert Chin and its Youth Chief cum MCA Sabah vice Youth Chairman, David Tan Chik Tiam.

dailyexpress