KUALA LUMPUR: The MCA tabled its grievances as a Barisan Nasional component party at the coalition' s supreme council meeting Friday (March 8), says party president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.
He said the MCA central committee would be briefed on the matter when they meet on March 17.
Speaking to the media after the supreme council meeting, Dr Wee said the three Barisan component parties - Umno, MCA and MIC - did not arrive at a consensus to dissolve the coalition, adding that under the Barisan constitution, consensus was needed to do it.
The MCA annual general assembly had on Dec 2 last year passed a resolution calling for the dissolution and to forge new alliances.
This (resolution) was the culmination of issues and utterances from certain Umno leaders which had undermined MCA.
Barisan deputy chairman Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan, who chaired the supreme council meeting, said a technical committee would be set up instead to deliberate on the grievances faced by component parties and find solutions so that the coalition could move forward.
Dr Wee, together with his deputy Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon and secretary-general Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun, were at the two-hour meeting at the Putra World Trade Centre here.
MIC leaders present included its president Tan Sri S A Vigneswaran.
The issues with MCA began when Umno's Padang Rengas MP Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, who was then Tourism and Culture Minister, wore black to the national Chinese New Year open house in Kedah last year.
Nazri had also, in February last year, labelled 95-year-old tycoon Robert Kuok a pondan (effeminate).
Kuok, also a renowned philanthropist, is an icon in the Chinese community.
During the recent Semenyih by-election campaign, a video of Nazri threatening to close vernacular schools had also gone viral.
Called up by police and investigated for sedition subsequently, he denied calling for the closure.
Umno, MCA and MIC formed the Alliance Party in 1957.
The Alliance Party was renamed Barisan Nasional in 1974 and started to bring other parties into its fold.
Barisan, which went into the 14th general election last year, as a 13-party coalition lost federal power for the first time since Independence.
Only the three founding parties - Umno, MCA and MIC - remained in the coalition after the GE14 defeat.
On Umno and PAS declaring their formal collaboration on Tuesday (March 5), Dr Wee said this was not the same as PAS joining Barisan.
He, however, said the collaboration must not contravene the Federal Constitution and the Barisan Constitution.
Dr Wee said the collaboration between the two parties, which are now Opposition parties, aims to unite the Malays and Muslims.
He noted that MCA's cooperation with Opposition parties is issue based and in line with universal values that are good for the people.
Citing an example, he said MCA's stand against the abolition of death penalty was supported by some PAS MPs.
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