Future of MCA depends on unity, says Najib

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak wants MCA leaders to close rank and stop any infighting that had caused the Chinese party support from the Chinese community.

Najib, who is also the Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, said as a component party, he needed the MCA to be strong and united, so it could help to bring back the Chinese support for the coalition in the next general election.

"The future of MCA depends on unity. Be together and be stronger together. MCA is our partner. MCA should not fight among themselves. Enough. Don't fight anymore," he said when opening the 61st MCA annual general assembly at Wisma MCA in the capital, Sunday.

The Prime Minister pointed out that if the leaders continued to fight, not only that nothing would be done, the people, particularly the Chinese community would get bored with them.

Najib said that infighting had also caused the party to lose its sense of direction.

He said as BN chairman, he depended on party leaders to nominate the best and winnable candidates for the general elections.

However, it would be a problem for him when leaders of the coalition parties could not agree on names and nominated a different list of candidates to the top BN leadership.

"It is difficult for me to listen to what the different peoples say. It is difficult to choose the candidates.

"As the BN chairman, I don't know all the party members. I have to rely on the presidents of the coalition parties to submit the best winnable candidates (for the general elections)," he said, adding that factionalism within the party would make it difficult in the selection of candidates for the general elections.

Najib added that under the new leadership, he was confident that MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai had set a sense of direction and sense of purpose to rejuvenate the party.

"MCA must have a sense of direction. All this while, when you were fighting, you have lost your way. The grassroots tell me that MCA has lost its sense of direction," Najib said.

Speaking in front of 1,839 national delegates at the assembly, he said although there were only two MCA representatives in the cabinet, he would try his best to accommodate requests from the community brought up by them.

The two are Liow who is Transport Minister, and his deputy Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, who is Minister in the Prime Minister's Department.

Najib pointed out that as the leader of a multiracial Malaysia, he would try to be fair to all races and a strong mandate from the people would enable him to deliver more.

"As chairman, I try to be fair. But I like to do more. I also need the Chinese community to support BN," he said.

As such, he said, MCA leaders should also do their part to bring back Chinese support for the BN.

Touching on Chinese schools, Najib told the community not to worry about the future existence of Chinese-type national schools (SJKC) as this was included in national policies like the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025.

"It's just that we hope SJKC (students) will learn the national language well," he said.

On the economy, Najib, who is also finance minister, said the government's move to widen tax collection through the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was correct for a nation that was going forward to be an advanced economy.

He remarked that the GST was a better proposition compared to the capital gains tax mooted by the opposition which, he said, would impact negatively on the economy.

"It is not the right prescription. GST is much better than the capital gains tax," Najib said, adding that the latter was not business friendly and would render Malaysia less competitive.

Meanwhile, Najib said that in principle, he concurred with Liow's suggestion for the creation of the entity, 1Malaysia-China Corporation, to help accelerate local business efforts, particularly the small and medium industries, to penetrate the China market.

The Prime Minister said he was prepared to discuss the matter in more detail with the MCA leaders.