PETALING JAYA: MCA is encoura­ging its leaders and election candidates to keep in touch with their voters via social media or other forms of publicity.

Its deputy president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong said MCA candidates or grassroots leaders have the freedom to produce videos to promote themselves, to know their voters and to communicate with their voters.

“We have to be realistic. MCA is not a dictatorship party,” he told a press conference at Sin Chew Media Corporation Bhd’s office here after launching the Chinese daily’s Filial Piety Essay Writing Competition yesterday.

The party also came to the de­­fence of Gelang Patah MCA division chief Datuk Jason Teoh who was criticised by the Opposition for his video entitled Jason Teoh’s Suffering.

The four-minute video recently uploaded on a YouTube channel named Team Jason showed a reenactment of the scenario faced by Teoh and his division members before and after the general election in 2013.

In the video, a depressed Teoh dismissed his angry division members and told them to go home and rest. Fuelled by frustration, he then crushed a drink can and threw it at an MCA flag in his office.

This was supposedly due to the disappointment that neither Teoh nor the MCA was chosen to contest the Gelang Patah seat.

Teoh’s video ended with a scene of him going for a jog and then screaming in frustration before saying that he would prove himself to the Gelang Patah constituents.

Dr Wee slammed the DAP for criticising Teoh.

“If you are a Democratic Action Party, why can’t you have a little element of democracy? This is the right of the candidate, irrespective of parties.

“If my opponent produced the same video, I will say that I respect you, that’s all.

“We might have our differences but it doesn’t mean I will criticise you. We must maintain that mutual respect.

“This is a true story of him. Who are you to say that ‘no, your feelings should not be like that?’. You are not Jason Teoh,” said Dr Wee.

He said Dr Wee also said MCA is well prepared to face whatever challenges that lie ahead when the general election is called.

He said preparatory work has been good so far and that he and party president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai had also conducted many training sessions through party schools and divisions.

-The Star-