MCA is likely to make way for Umno at Bandar Tun Razak, a federal seat in Kuala Lumpur it lost in the 2008 political tsunami to PKR and failed to regain in 2013, in exchange for Kuantan.

“Umno has been eyeing Bandar Tun Razak since 1995 but MCA put Tan Chai Ho as its candidate. He successfully defended it for three terms. So Umno couldn’t ask for it,” a source told The Malaysian Insight.

The source said if the exchange goes through, Umno is likely to field Badminton Association of Malaysia president Norza Zakaria as the candidate.

The source said Umno’s survey revealed that BN’s chances of winning Bandar Tun Razak are higher than MCA’s.

Tan held Bandar Tun Razak between 1995 and 2008 before losing to former Selangor menteri besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim (PKR) in the 12th general election in the same year.

Tan was the deputy energy, communication and multimedia minister between 1999 and 2004 and the deputy home minister from 2004 to 2008.

Last month, MCA president Liow Tiong Lai announced that the party is ready to field Bandar Tun Razak MCA chairman Chew Yin Keen as its candidate. However, Liow conceded that the final say is with Prime Minster and BN chairman Najib Razak.

Umno secretary-general and Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor had also lamented about BN’s electoral defeat in Bandar Tun Razak last year.

“I don’t know how BN can lose Bandar Tun Razak twice. Bandar Tun Razak is a reflection of Malaysia – it has about equal number of Malays, Chinese and Indians constituents, although now there is slightly more Malays. I just don’t understand why,” he reportedly said.

With 90,993 registered voters in 2013, the constituency is made up of 53% Malay, 37% Chinese and 9% Indian.

“What are the government’s faults? You want houses, we give houses; you want roads, we give roads; you want a school, we give you a school; and we even give you free bus service to send children to school and we ask for nothing in return because we know how difficult life is now.

“So I don’t know what else we can do,” added Tengku Adnan, popularly known as Ku Nan.

The Putrajaya MP said if Najib had not told him to continue serving the people even when they do not vote for BN, he would have stopped serving the constituents at Bandar Tun Razak.

Umno Bandar Tun Razak chairman Rizalman Mokhtar had asked the party leadership to allow it to contest in April last year.

“For almost 15 years, Umno has been working hard here and the time has come for Umno to contest this seat, I guarantee we will deliver a parliament seat for BN.

“We are like football players who have been training hard and in the end not were allowed to take part in a major tournament, and it’s a waste,” Rizalman was quoted as saying.

The Malaysian Insight had reported previously that Umno has agreed to return Gelang Patah and Wangsa Maju to MCA as the lynchpin party in BN failed to win both seats in 2013 while talks were still ongoing over Kuantan.

PKR’s Fuziah Salleh defeated BN’s Mohamed Suffian Awang by 4,515 votes in 2013 to retain the Kuantan seat she wrested from MCA’s Fu Ah Kiow in 2008. – February 8, 2018.