The Malaysian Insight

MCA wants to bank on young and new candidates for the upcoming Johor polls, with the aim of letting these new faces chart the party’s future, Wee Ka Siong said. 

The party president told The Malaysian Insight he planned to name new faces for the Johor elections after seeing how Umno had succeeded with its new and young candidates in the Malacca elections last November.

The party secured a landslide win in Malacca.

“More than 80% of Umno’s candidates in the Malacca elections were new faces, and MCA should also make adjustments to replace its candidate with new blood. 

“First I have to determine how many seats MCA will get (in Johor), and then I can start thinking about the candidates. 

“However, I can assure you that we will not be placing the same old candidates,” the transport minister said.

He also said that the party was also considering the large pool of young voters who would be participating in Johor as well as in the 15th general election. 

“With the 18-year-olds’ automatic voter mechanism taking effect, whoever can control 7.8 million new voters will control the situation. At this time, whoever has the support of the youth will own the country,” he said. 

He said the addition of these young voters has made a big difference. 

“Candidates may have lost by 300 votes in the past, or narrowly won by 300, and suddenly now there are some 5,000 new voters (in every constituency). So, everything is still unknown,” he added. 

He said the way to win new and young voters was by understanding their needs and to understand youth development and employment opportunities. 

Wee said in addition to new voters, there are also first-time voters who have not voted after registering. This too can change the election results, he added. 

Wee also said that the south Johor region has a large proportion of new voters, which poses a great challenge to MCA.

“Johor is a battleground state. We have to go all out and fight with our strength,” he said.

Young voters a challenge to all

Wee said that it was not just Barisan Nasional (BN) facing challenges from young voters, with opposition parties also having their work cut out to win the group over. 

“The new and young voters don’t necessarily know you. So political parties and candidates must understand the needs of 18- and 19-year-olds, such as employment and education opportunities, what sort of impressions the parties and candidates make and whether they have helped these youngsters.” 

Wee also said young voters were very much influenced by social media, where they evaluate and assess a party based on online impression. 

He added that it was also a risk to field young candidates as these first-time voters would not know these candidates. 

“Issues that resonate on social media are often directly related to young people, so MCA cannot be static. It must feel the pulse of the people. 

“If it remains the same, how to connect with young people, even if you have seven or eight years of experience in politics. 

“Today is different from the past, and the voices of the young people around are getting louder and louder. 

“We need to know how to integrate the needs of society. We have to make adjustments,” he said.

Not gunning for more seats

When asked if MCA was aiming to contest in 15 state seats in Johor as it did in GE14, Wee admitted that BN could not satisfy everyone’s needs, and that it was useless to be noisy over such matters. 

In GE14, MCA lost in all 15 state seats it contested. 

“Some constituencies and candidates, if they can’t win, why fight for it? Will they win if they are fielded? How will they fight to win? Who will win? What kind of election battle? 

“I know how many seats I want. I have already submitted the list the seats I want. I won’t be a hero,” he said. 

Citing the Tanjung Piai parliamentary seat by-election as an example, Wee said some allies saw MCA as a weak party but MCA managed to secure a massive victory.

Wee also admitted that the wins in Malacca, where MCA successfully broke the duck to win two seats in the state, gave the party some encouragement. 

“You’ll be happy if you go from zero to one,” he said. 

Wee said in the Johor polls, MCA will continue to go all out to win the support of more voters.

The BN-led government held 28 seats while Pakatan Harapan had 27 seats. The Kempas seat was left vacant following the death of its assemblyman, former Johor menteri besar Osman Sapian, on December 21 last year. 

The Johor legislative assembly was dissolved on January 22 after Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar assented to it. 

Johor is the fourth state to hold elections after GE14. – February 3, 2022.