MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek today agreed with the Election Commission’s (EC) proposal to impose certain conditions for Malaysians working and living abroad before they can vote in the country’s general election.

“The American system says you must be a tax payer (in the country) before you can vote. All countries have various conditions, they have no blanket approval,” he told a press conference in Shah Alam today at DRB-Hicom’s Chinese New Year open house.     

He said if Malaysian overseas electors voted for a particular party they liked, they did not have to bear the consequences of their votes whereas Malaysian local voters had to pay for the consequences of their voting preferences.

Overseas voters were just like “armchair voters” and they did not have to bear the risk of discharging their citizen’s right, he said.

Chua said this when commenting on remarks made by EC chairperson Abduk Aziz Mohd Yusof in a news report today that the commission was in the process of determining the criteria that must be fulfilled by Malaysians overseas before they were allowed to vote.

At the event, Chua also said that the Perkasa’s white ang pow packets had nothing to do with MCA but all the opposition parties tried to link MCA with Perkasa.

“MCA has 63 years doing Chinese New Year, our members are fully aware of what is red ang pow and what is a white piece of paper. So please do not link MCA with Perkasa, that’s not fair. So please do not spin politics to the extent that it has no basis,” said Chua.

Therefore, he said Perkasa could not claim they knew about Chinese custom when during the Chinese New Year the Chinese used red colour a lot, they even dressed in red and did not use white paper.

Chua said: “If you make a mistake, just admit and apologise, what’s wrong? I believe that in the spirit of the New Year, people will accept the mistakes of other people.”

- Bernama