The Malaysian Insight

MCA decided to stay with the Barisan Nasional coalition because it has confidence in Umno as a strong party, said Umno member and Padang Rengas MP Nazri Aziz.

“I think they decided to stay because Umno is strong. We have the strongest MP representatives so far,” Nazri told reporters at Parliament lobby today.

“Why would they want to be in BN if they have no confidence in Umno. Otherwise they would have already ran away,” he said.

MCA yesterday announced its decision to remain as a BN component party.

The Chinese party’s central committee in a statement said the decision was to strengthen the cooperation between the various races and to ensure there was no racial-based political inclination.

Nazri also said Umno will pursue its cooperation with PAS as it could lead to the coalition’s success in the 15th general election.

He said the cooperation is going well and it was reflected in BN’s victory at the Semenyih and Cameron Highlands by-elections.

“(Umno) is still a party that gets the support from the people and also the PAS-Umno cooperation is working well.

“We’ll make sure that it works and continues until we reach GE15,” said Nazri.

He also said he had to prioritise his party’s survival before other parties’.

“And I have said we will prioritise the importance of Malays and Islam.

“We will take care of others when we are strong and after we win. How should we take care of others if we ourselves are not strong,” he added.

MCA had recently commented on the PAS-Umno partnership saying “when a BN component party pursues (a) partnership outside the coalition, it must not forget to adhere to BN’s code of consensus and diversity”.

The Chinese party said it faced a crucial decision: leave BN behind and allow the Umno-PAS partnership to lead the opposition or to stay in BN and strengthen multiracial cooperation. – March 18, 2019.