From UMNO To MCA Sabah

I'm intrigued by the remarks of YB Bung Moktar, the Kinabatangan member of Parliament, on the great performance of Sabah UMNO in the just concluded UMNO General Assembly.

"He said that while Sabah's performance in the 12th general election was important, equally crucial was the delegates' preference in wanting to see a balanced representation among the states."

The honourable YB Bung Moktar also said: "that all states were represented in the line-up and this would go a long way in restoring confidence in the party".

However, he had not mentioned that the UMNO Central Delegates from Sabah is the second highest in terms of numbers!

I'm referring to a news reported in Bernama 27-March-2009 where the outspoken YB from the east coast of Sabah, made the comment after their glorious success in Putra World Trade Centre. (http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=399649).

The achievements of Sabah UMNO are as follows:-

Datuk Shafie Apdal as Vice President, Datuk Rosnah as Putri UMNO Head, Datuk Musa Aman, Datuk Lajim Okin, and Datuk Bong Moktar as Central Committee Members.

Indeed, this is a healthy political development and trend for Sabah and Malaysia; I hope that the trend would be extended to other federal-based parties like MCA, MIC and Gerakan, not only for party influence regionally, but for the sake of national integration.

MCA in its last AGM had elected two (2) Central Committee Members from Sabah, which "rightfully" should have been three (3). It was. however, considered a "break through" for Sabah MCA, as the state had always been "given" only one seat (after some consensus understanding).

It has also been the majority wish of Sabah MCA to see greater, and significant, participation in the central leadership; the creation of a Vice President post solely for East Malaysian region will be a favourable, if not remarkable, reformation. The logic for the reformation is that a closer ties, and involvement, with the East Malaysian states, is the positive way to bring down all the barriers between the people of east and west Malaysia.

I feel that the current representation is just not enough and warrants a serious review by the top leaders if MCA sincerely wants to have influence in the politic of Sabah or Sarawak.

The MCA Central Delegates from Sabah, which stands at 125 at the moment, can be doubled, if more aggressive efforts from central leadership are forthcoming.

The golden opportunity is available now with SAPP being out of the BN, and that the Sabah MCA is the only Chinese Party on par with the strength of UMNO, provided MCA wants to be so. It's now up to the top MCA leaders whether they want the party to fill the vaccum in Sabah. It may be "now or never" for MCA Sabah.

We hope that the same achievement by Sabah UMNO can be "emulated" in the federal civil services that more Sabahan or East Malaysian are accepted like their counterparts in the political arena.

The ball is now with the federal leaders, especially so for the new UMNO leadership.