MIC Youth chief: Too soon to say components’ polls snub will affect BN’s future
JOHOR BARU, July 17 — MIC Youth chief K. Raven Kumar said it was premature to say that his party and MCA’s decision to sit out the six state elections next month was a sign of trouble for the Barisan Nasional coalition.
He said this would ultimately depend on the coalition’s performance in the elections for Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu, Penang, Selangor, and Negeri Sembilan on August 12.
“Maybe there is, or maybe not. I believe that any impact to BN can only be seen after the state election results for the six states are out,” said Raven Kumar to reporters at the Persada Johor Convention Centre here today.
He was responding to a recent report on BN’s future following the decision by MCA and MIC to abstain from the state elections despite being allocated seats.
Raven Kumar, who is also the Johor tourism, environment, heritage and culture committee chairman, was earlier present at a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signing ceremony between Persada Johor and United Global Compact Malaysia and Brunei.
Raven Kumar said that MIC’s decision not to contest was to give the Indian-based party room to strengthen its support first.
He also denied that it would be difficult for MIC to win in the allocated seats, adding that the party wanted the cooperation of all parties in the unity government to be strengthened.
“Even if MIC does not contest in the state elections, we will still go down to the ground and assist in the campaign together with Pakatan Hardpan (PH)," he said.
Raven Kumar, who is the Tenggaroh assemblyman, said MIC remained supportive of the national unity government and would continue to abide by BN’s policy decisions for the sake of prosperity and stability.
On July 5, MCA and MIC announced that they will not be participating in the six state elections, but both later pledged to support BN’s candidates in the polls.
In GE15, MCA only won two of the 44 parliamentary seats contested while MIC only secured one of the 10 seats contested.
