KUALA LUMPUR: MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek has denied reports that the party has held possible merger talks with Barisan Nasional component parties Gerakan and Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP).In an interview published by Oriental Daily on Tuesday, Chua said : “I won’t say MCA will never merge with Gerakan, but currently the three Chinese-based BN component parties are not engaged in merger discussions”.
“At present, there is no meeting, neither is there any discussions on such matter,” he was quoted in the interview.
He was responding to news reports in vernicular newspapers over the weekend that he had held talks with Gerakan president Koh Tsu Koon and SUPP president George Chan on possibility of a merger of the three parties.
The reports said a meeting was recently held in Sarawak to explore the possibility of a merger of Chinese-based BN component parties and turn it into new entity, that with a multi-racial platform, in order to garner bigger support.
It was reported that the idea was mooted following a significant swing in Chinese support toward the opposition since 2008 general election and continued worries that if such trend continues, it would have significant impact in the next general election.
In 2008 last general election, MCA only won 15 of the 40 parliamentary seats it contested while Gerakan only won two of the 12 parliamentary seats contested an was wiped out from its power base in Penang.
On the other hand, SUPP also suffered badly in Sarawak state election on April 16, losing 13 of the 19 seats it had contested.
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