MCA Youth prepares motion for non-Chinese affiliate members

Proposal to amend party constitution being drafted for approval by central committee

(FMT) – The MCA is to make another stab at opening its doors to non-Chinese members, with a proposed amendment to its party constitution to allow affiliate members.

The party’s Youth wing will table a motion at the general assembly next month to amend the party’s constitution.

MCA Youth chairman Chong Sin Woon said a draft motion was being prepared for approval by the central committee. The proposal is to admit affiliate members and organisations in a transitional period before full admission of non-Chinese members. “So let’s start with that,” he told The Star newspaper.

The Youth wing floated the idea of non-Chinese affiliate members in July. A month later, Chong said a task force had been set up to look into the party constitution and “other matters that have to be discussed in detail.”

Proposals for opening up the MCA’s membership have arisen several times over the past decades.

In 1993, the party opened its doors to all Malaysians of Chinese origin, including those with non-Chinese names, and people with a Chinese mother or Chinese grandparents.

The party’s main political rivals, the DAP and Gerakan, are open to all Malaysians and are nominally multiracial, but draw their support largely from the Chinese community and whose party leaders are mainly Chinese.