ANALYSIS The upcoming by-election for the Kajang state seat has put MCA, especially its newly-minted president Liow Tiong Lai, in an uncomfortable spot.

Liow will be spearheading MCA's first by-election in the past seven years, barely two months into his new role as president. The last by-election for MCA was for the Machap state seat in Malacca in 2007.

Both Liow and the party are still locked in infighting, with former president Dr Chua Soi Lek (right) recently claiming that his successor had reneged on their deal.
 
Furthermore, since the 2008 general election, MCA had been abandoned by the Chinese electorate and the Kajang seat comprises a large number of Chinese voters.

It appears that whether or not MCA contests this seat, it is a Catch-22 situation for both the party and its president.

And to make matters worse, the PKR candidate for the seat is none other than Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Umno Youth has already openly asked for the best candidate from BN to be fielded, with its chief Khairy Jamaluddin saying that the old formula should be discarded and therefore hinting that an Umno candidate should vie for the seat.

If Liow bows to the pressure from Umno and surrenders the seat, the move would be in contradiction of his team's criticism against the former president.

They had taken Chua to task for handing over the Kuantan, Gelang Patah and Wangsa Maju seats in the last general election.

But if MCA insists on doing battle in Kajang, then the next question is who would be the best candidate to take on a heavyweight like Anwar.

And if MCA is unable to name a credible candidate, Umno would have more reasons to ask for the seat.

At the moment, it is speculated that the possible candidates are Lee Bang Seng, who contested the seat in the last general election, and MCA organising secretary Wyman Yoo Wei How.

Lee had lost to PKR’s Lee Chin Cheh, who garnered a 6,824 majority. The latter had resigned this week to pave the way for a by-election and allow Anwar to contest.

Kajang is a mixed seat with 48 percent Malay voters, Chinese 41 percent and 10 percent Indian voters.

Although Kajang is a traditional MCA seat, the fact that Malay voters form the biggest chunk of the electorate is also another strong point for Umno to aim for the seat.

As for Liow and MCA, this by-election could be an opportunity to return to the light after being cast into the political darkness since 2008.

The party is hoping to capitalise on the dissatisfaction among voters with regard to PKR engineering this by-election and that the popular Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim could be ousted.

So MCA would be hoping to slash Anwar's majority or even emerged as the victor.

But if the party loses badly, then Liow would be in trouble. The guns in Chua’s faction would be trained on him.