Excited wing woos young women into its fold
MCA Youth today welcomed its female counterparts during its 47th Annual General Assembly after the party's main central committee decided last year to open up the wing to female members.
MCA Youth today welcomed its female counterparts during its 47th Annual General Assembly after the party's main central committee decided last year to open up the wing to female members.
A simple ceremony was arranged for the women from Beliawanis MCA, a section of Wanita MCA for women aged between 18 to 35, with a short screening of a video detailing the history of MCA Youth and Wanita MCA.
As the women marched up the aisle to the row of seats reserved for them to applause from their male counterparts, some of the members stood on their toes while others stretched their necks to get a peek at them.
Amused by the atmosphere, BN Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, who was also present at the event, posted on micro-blogging site Twitter: "MCA Youth opens up membership to young women as well now. Noticed delegates excited with presence of female members."
Khairy, who is also Umno Youth chief, then jokingly queried his counterpart Puteri Umno chief Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin on Twitter if she wanted to merge with Umno Youth.
Rosnah replied: "That's great, we (will) discuss once I'm back, sorry for the late reply."
They 'brightened everyone's eyes'
MCA deputy president Liow Tiong Lai later in his address to the assembly said the move was something he had never had the chance to experience and was pleased with the new culture of "a family without gender separation".
He hoped that the new "family" would help MCA Youth to expand and become stronger.
Before kicking off the debate, assembly chairperson Loke Yuen Yow then joked that the wing today not only consisted of male but also female members, and not just any female members, but "pretty youths that would brightened everyone's eyes".
MCA Youth and Wanita MCA had achieved a consensus on Dec 9 last year to open up the former to Beliawanis MCA and the matter was approved by the MCA central committee the same month.
Before this, the youth wing was only opened to all male members under the age of 45 while female members had Wanita MCA as their platform.
