Malacca BN candidates drama: One declines appointment, another flees

GE14 | There was no shortage of drama when Malacca BN chief Idris Haron announced the coalition's candidates for the 14th general election as MCA's Machap Jaya candidate Koh Nai Kwong did not turn up while Bandar Hilir's Lee Chong Len fled the scene.

According to Oriental Daily, Idris had summoned Koh to his official residence in Ayer Keroh at 9am, to discuss his position.

Koh is the incumbent Alor Gajah MP but was shifted to the state seat of Machap Jaya in order to make way for the caretaker prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's political secretary Wong Nai Chee, despite grassroots protest.

The report said Idris had sought to convince Koh to accept the new arrangement but Koh declined and left Idris' official residence after a 30-minute meeting, shortly before the appointment ceremony.

Koh, when contacted by Oriental Daily, said Idris had promised him 24 hours for him to make a decision. He had yet to accept the appointment letter to contest in Machap Jaya.

MCA only won the Machap Jaya state seat by a razor-thin 152-vote majority in the last general election. In contrast, the party swept Alor Gajah with 11,597 majority votes.

Meanwhile, the report said Lee who was touted as the Kesidang state seat candidate fled the scene when he was suddenly announced as the candidate for the Bandar Hilir state seat.

In the last general election, MCA lost Kesidang by a 3,818-vote majority. Bandar Hilir is an even tougher seat, which MCA lost by 7,952 votes.

The report said Lee, an accountant, was a political newbie and had been working the ground in Kesidang.

However, Lee, in an interview with the Chinese daily, gave a bizarre reason of why he abruptly left the chief minister's residence when he was announced as a candidate in a DAP stronghold.

"I only went to check out the atmosphere... I did not expect to be announced as a candidate.

"It caught me off guard and I did not know what to do. I did not want to simply take the appointment letter so I quickly left," he said.

Lee said he had never contested in a general election before and had to think about it but will leave the matter to the party.

Meanwhile, Wong who accepted his appointment letter for the parliamentary seat of Alor Gajah urged MCA members to close ranks.

The report quoted Wong as saying that when he was Kota Melaka MP from 2004 to 2008, Koh was the Kesidang assemblyperson, which was a state seat under him.

At that time, Wong said he had a good working relationship with Koh and hoped this can be rebuilt.

Machap Jaya is a state seat under Alor Gajah. - Mkini