JOHOR BARU: The Kulai and Tebrau parliamentary seats are steep mountains to scale but Johor MCA Youth is willing to take on the challenge in the 15th General Election (GE15).
Its chief Ling Tian Soon (pic) said the youth wing has set the two seats, currently held by DAP’s Teo Nie Ching and Parti Bangsa Malaysia’s Steven Choong respectively, as its “frontline seats”.
“If candidates from MCA’s youth wing are fielded in the two seats, it will be as if we are chopping big trees with small blades.
“But we are up for it,” he said, referring to the underdog situation.
Ling added that they are not afraid to take on the challenges that lie ahead in order to help MCA wrest back the lost seats.
He highlighted that in the March Johor election, MCA won four state seats namely Yong Peng, Paloh, Pekan Nanas and Bekok and called on its members to work even harder to help the party restore its former glory.
He also said MCA, under the leadership of president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong, has been open to giving opportunities to the youths for them to hold important positions.
Out of the 124 appointed local councillors from MCA statewide, 47 are aged 40 and below while 15 of the 120 appointed Chinese new village chiefs are in the same age group, said Ling, who is also Johor health and unity committee chairman.
“Meanwhile, out of the party’s eight parliamentary seat coordinators, half of them are youths including Chua Jian Boon (coordinator for the Kulai constituency) and Teow Chia Ling (Tebrau).
“They are also our ideal choices for GE15,” he added.
Chua, who is the special officer to Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz, is also the MCA national public complaints and services bureau deputy chief.
Teow, a Johor Baru City Council councillor for the Setia Austin zone, is also MCA Youth vice-chairman and the youth chief at the Tebrau MCA division.
There are 26 parliamentary seats in Johor – the second highest state nationwide.
In GE14, Teo beat MCA’s Tang Nai Soon and PAS’ Juwahir Amin in Kulai while in Tebrau, Choong, who then contested under the PKR ticket, won against MCA’s Datuk Dr Hou Kok Chung and PAS’ Abdullah Husin.
