SEREMBAN: The MCA should recruit more young members as part of the party's rejuvenation process, says Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.
The MCA president said apart from providing a line of succession, having more young members will allow the party to better deal with issues faced by the youth.
"Relatively, our members are getting older and those above 40 years now make up about 90% of our membership.
"We need to rejuvenate if we wish to stay relevant and to also better understand the problems of the younger generation as we move forward.
"If we do not recruit more young members, then I am afraid there will eventually be a generational gap in the party," he told reporters after opening the Negri Sembilan MCA convention here.
Dr Wee said the youth, who are not necessarily politically inclined, could also join as there are many programmes and activities carried out by the party.
Citing an example, he said the party had set up the Crisis Relief Squad Malaysia (CRSM) unit to help flood victims as well as those facing other hardship.
"Young members, including professionals and graduates, can always start as volunteers.
"Those who do not wish to be active politically can also join many other initiatives such as technical and vocational education and training (TVET), public speaking, educational workshops or do community-related work," he said, adding that the party's Youth and Women's wings have been tasked with this responsibility.
He said it was also important to have more young members as the legal voting age has been lowered from 21 to 18.
"It will be good if we can get them once they leave school. We need young people who have good social media skills so that we can feel the pulse of younger Malaysians," he said, adding that he himself used TikTok to keep in touch with the masses.
Dr Wee said the party can train these youths who had good public speaking skills and general knowledge, and effectively counter lies.
Separately, Dr Wee said although MCA had decided to sit out the six state elections, the MCA would work hard and campaign for Barisan Nasional candidates.
He said it was time to reciprocate as Barisan had also helped the MCA campaign previously during the Johor election.
Citing an example, he said Barisan members had helped MCA wrest the Yong Peng seat which it lost to the DAP in the 2018 polls.
"In 2018, we lost the seat which has 59% Chinese and 33% Malay voters with a majority of some 5,000 votes.
"However, when our Barisan friends (from other states) came and helped us to campaign, we managed to wrest the seat," he added.
