BN leaders on the coalition’s status

After Barisan Nasional’s defeat in GE-14, four Sabah-based parties and four Sarawak-based parties left the coalition. It went the same for Gerakan and myPPP. Then the question, “Will MCA and MIC leave BN?”, started to circulate in the media.

In the past month, MCA and MIC have been heavily associated with UMNO Dato’ Sri Mohamed Nazri, as a result from Nazri’s racial remarks during the Semenyih by-election campaign trail.

In a response to Nazri’s remarks, MCA President Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong and MIC President Tan Sri S. A Vigneswaran announced that they had no other choice but to leave BN and seek for a new political alliance.

Both parties also refused to recognize Nazri as BN secretary-general and labelled the appointment as illegitimate.

However, it is interesting to see that UMNO acting president Dato’ Seri Mohamad Hasan sits at the top of MCA and MIC influencers list.

Following the threat to leave BN, Mohamad or also known as Tok Mat, appealed to MCA and MIC to not act rashly since the statement made by Nazri did not represent BN as a whole.

Once the dust settled, Tok Mat is also the one who announced MCA and MIC’s decision not to dissolve from BN.

‘Kekal bersama BN’ (stay with BN) is the top issue discussed on the media related to MCA and MIC in the past month.

While Ka Siong is still categorized as top influencer in his role to explain the reasons MCA and MIC decided to stay with BN, Vigneswaran seems to be staying out of the spotlight.

One could assume that Vigneswaran has decided to not make things worse and let Tok Mat control the coalition’s narrative in the media.