The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) will continue to play a key role in Barisan Nasional (BN) to defend the interest of the Chinese community, said its president, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.

"The 13 component parties subscribe to power-sharing and decide by consensus. The call to withdraw from BN is therefore immoral and illegal, and strategically incorrect," he said at the party's headquarters, here today.

Speaking during the party's 68th anniversary celebration Liow insisted that only with the Chinese support will MCA be able to fight for the rights and interests the Chinese community deserved.

Admitting that the Chinese community today was facing the most rigorous challenge since the last 60 years, the Transport Minister said this was because the community's political representation was more vulnerable than ever before.

"I want to make the strongest call to all the Chinese out there to have a complete mindset reform, at this crucial juncture, to be unprecedentedly united to change the destiny of the (Malaysian) Chinese.

"The theme for today's aniversary is 'Stronger Together'. I would like to stress that the unity is not just about uniting MCA, but also uniting the Chinese community," he added.

Touching on DAP, Liow commented that since the past two general elections, DAP had been using irresponsible political gimmics resulting in the dilution of Chinese representation.

This has put the Chinese in passivity under the opposition coalition and indirectly helped boost up PAS' power base, he said.

Touching on the party's preparation for the upcoming general elections, Liow said all MCA members must now be prepared to go to 'war'.

He also called for maximum utilisation of social media to get better results and urge all party members to make use of mobile phones to help the party to woo voters. -- BERNAMA