PUTRAJAYA: MCA Youth chairman Datuk Wee Ka Siong said deputy president Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek should make use of his past experiences to assist the MCA president, for that is what the Chinese community has wanted to see.

He said Soi Lek has talked about too many presumptive things, which will only create more misunderstanding between MCA and the Chinese community.

"While the personnel arrangement for Cabinet posts has yet to be confirmed, he has already started beating around the bush on this issue, talking about what he would do if not offered a government post. This will only create misunderstanding."

He asked during an exclusive interview with Sin Chew Daily at the education ministry in Putrajaya Friday, "Who are the unhappy members?"

"Everyone has kept saying MCA members are unhappy with the new line-up. I would like to know who these members are."

This was the first time Wee Ka Siong had been interviewed by the media after being elected the MCA Youth chairman last month.

He said often the people starting a conflict are not the people involved, but rather outsiders who have cooked up the issue, including the way the media present the news and their perspectives in handling the news.

He pointed out that if the media only interpret the MCA new line-up as leaving "some people" out, then this will give people a wrong impression that an infighting is imminent within MCA.

He emphasised that since party members have elected Ong Tee Keat as the president, all the leaders must respect the president's decision, just as everybody respected Soi Lek as the Johor state liaison committee chairman back then. He said Soi Lek should therefore have this kind of attitude too.

No conflicts in appointments

Ka Seong said the appointment of MCA Youth vice chairman Yoo Wei How and organising secretary Gan Hong Su as the MCA organising secretary and assistant secretary, should not create any conflict.

He said the appointment of young people to the above posts should have been seen as something encouraging for the Youth wing, whoever they are.

He emphasised that Yoo is not the first person to have been promoted from the Youth organising secretary to MCA's organising secretary, citing the example of former party organising secretary Hon Choon Kim. The only difference is that Yoo is only 35 years old.

"To me, most of them are young people in their 30s, energetic, can work overtime, and have no problem in discharging their duties."

He said he believed the president's arrangement for these two young people to take up the organising tasks was not just meant to break through the tradition that such posts are normally reserved for those in higher positions, but more importantly to push for the rejuvenation of the party with the hope of luring more young people to the party.

He said although Yoo is only 35 years old, he has been the Youth executive secretary since 1996. In other words, he has more than ten years of political experiences and is by no means a rookie in politics.

Ka Seong pointed out that the posts of these two young men in MCA Youth coincide with their new tasks in the parent body, and while this would help the Youth wing recruit more young party members, it will also inject a new lease of life into the parent body.

Denying involvement in line-up arrangement

When asked to comment on the rumour that he and former deputy president Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy have been involved in the line-up arrangement, Ka Seong said laughingly, "I admit I have to admire these people's imagination."

However he said he did not know beforehand that Yoo was appointed the organising secretary by party president Ong Tee Keat, just as he did not know he would be appointed the Melaka state liaison committee chairman.

"Tee Keat knew Wei How before I. He was then the Youth secretary-general while Wei How was the assistant executive secretary.

"Besides, Wei How was earlier the secretary to former vice president Datuk Seri Fong Chan Onn. Are you going to say Chan Onn also has a hand in this arrangement?"

New line-up not restrictive to Soi Lek

Ka Seong felt that MCA's new leadership line-up had not confined Chua Soi Lek's capacity as the party deputy president to perform his duties.

"As the deputy president, he absolutely has his power and own space to exert his capabilities."

He said Soi Lek could make use of his past experiences to effectively monitor and spur each and every leader within the party, and offer the necessary rectification solutions.

He said as a senior, Soi Lek has his absolute strength especially in Cabinet experiences and his sensitivity towards issues related to the people's day-to-day living, and all these should serve as valuable experiences to be shared with the president and party leadership.

He said the government policy monitoring bureau headed by Soi Lek is largely identical to MCA Youth's policy monitoring bureau headed by the Youth deputy chairman Mah Hang Soon. He said both are very important bureaus that are playing very important roles in the party.

"I don't quite understand his personal feelings, but to the Youth wing, the government policy monitoring bureau is very important. If this is not the most important, then what else can be important?"

He said he had arranged for Mah to head the policy monitoring bureau and authorised him to summon the chiefs of all other bureaus if necessary not only because this bureau had been playing a very important role, but also to prevent outsiders from seeing MCA Youth as nothing more than just a cultural and social organisation.

Trying to regain young people's support

Ka Seong said MCA Youth would now place more emphasis on political works in a bid to regain young people's support for MCA Youth as well as the parent body.

He said MCA Youth could not keep on executing government policies only, as it had done in the past, adding that the Youth wing must play the role of monitoring government policies, otherwise Malaysians would not see the change in it.

He said the purpose of MCA Youth setting up the policy and public deliverance system monitoring committee headed by Mah Hang Soon, and the expansion of the legal bureau and training bureau into the legal affairs & parliament legislature research bureau and political education bureau, was to enhance the Youth's role in the monitoring of government policies.

Young people's thinking affects how the older will vote

"After the March general elections, we must come to the realisation of one fact: it has become a trend for young people today to participate in the decision of the nation's destiny. The way they think will affect how the older people will vote in the elections."

He pointed out that other than informing the young people that ruling parties also have their social obligations, MCA Youth has attempted to enhance the ties with young people through the establishment of the information technology bureau and taking the bold initiative of engaging more young people.

New Youth line-up accommodating

Ka Seong said the new MCA Youth line-up is an accommodating one.

He said the new line-up would provide a platform for everyone to perform, even though they have failed in the elections.

"This is the same as what I've said prior to the party elections: whoever wins the elections, we're always in the same team."

He said although some Youth central committee members have not been given any bureau post, they have a more important duty of pushing ahead the Youth wing's political agendas.

He believed the new team would be a more balanced one.

On the public concerns that MCA Youth could one day become as hardline as UMNO Youth, Ka Seong said if UMNO Youth fails to exercise the spirit of collective leadership and responsibility in handling certain principled issues, MCA Youth would then voice up against it.

He emphasised that on such principled issues, MCA Youth would stand firm on its own viewpoints and principles, and would not compromise even though UMNO Youth is unhappy.

Johor grassroots welcome Tee Keat as state chairman

He said Ong Tee Keat is not the first MCA president that also presides over the Johor state liaison committee. If there are anyone trying to interpret his chairing of the Johor state committee in a different manner, then they are just holding double standards.

Ka Seong said he had faith in MCA Johor, and believed the grassroots leaders would not be unhappy because the deputy president is not heading the state committee.

He said, looking at the MCA history, two former presidents Tun Ling Liong Sik and Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting were all Johor state liaison committee chairmen who had received tremendous welcome among the state grassroots, and no one had said the president should not take the Johor chair.

He emphasised that since it is the president's constitutional right to appoint state chairmen, they should then respect the president's decision and not come up with nonsensical remarks such as "I don't agree."

"I respect but don't agree. What a nonsense. How are you going to respect if you don't even agree."

On the fact that many people think the new MCA line-up is "weird," Ka Seong said this could be because there have been so many speculations from outsiders and the media while the final outcome is different from what people have anticipated.

He pointed out that no line-up could possibly please everyone. Someone is going to interpret differently no matter what kind of arrangement you have made.

He said anyone taking up any post could potentially become a controversy. When a person has been arranged to take up a post, he will ask why he has been given such a minor post, or why this post has been so important.

"This situation is very commonplace in politics. We'll never have an arrangement that will satisfy everybody." (By CHEN YUZHEN, YAN PEISHAN/Translated by DOMINIC LOH/Sin Chew Daily)