MERGER WON'T HELP: MCA, Gerakan, SUPP must leave Umno-BN to regain credibility

PETALING JAYA - Opposition leaders were unfazed by news that MCA, Gerakan and SUPP were considering a merger to stay alive after being nearly wiped out in the recent general election.

"The key objection Malaysians have towards these 3 parties are their abject subservience to the power-holder in their coalition. It's not about their being MCA, Gerakan or SUPP. A merger or a new name for the new entity would bring limited benefits if any. For MCA and Gerakan, it is their 'yes-man' attitude towards Umno and for SUPP, it is because they dare not say 'no' to Taib Mahmud," PKR vice president Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

He was responding to a report quoting acting Gerakan president Chang Ko Youn, who said discussion between the three parties would take place after their respective internal elections and also stressed that the merger was to be within the BN.

Tian believes that Prime Minister Najib Razak's Umno party was likely to object to the merger behind the scenes even if it might publicly welcome the news.

"To some in Umno, instead of improving BN, they will see the merger as being a threat to Umno's hegemony. This type of mentality is not only very common in Umno but currently, it is on the rise. There are bound to be roadblocks and obstructions thrown in the way of the merger. And frankly, even if the merger is cleared, it is hard to imagine that the new entity won't be a toothless replication of the three individual parties combined."

After party polls

After being badly mauled in Election 2013, Gerakan, MCA, and SUPP in Sarawak are to hold talks soon to merge into a larger Chinese-based party within Barisan Nasional (BN), Gerakan's acting president Datuk Chang Ko Youn said.

“I together with MCA president Chua Soi Lek and SUPP president Peter Chin have discussed this several times previously. However, the decision can only be made after all the parties have chosen their new leadership, maybe after October," Chang was quoted as saying by Malay-language weekly Mingguan Malaysia on Sunday.

“The focus for now is for MCA and Gerakan to solve its internal issues. To form a new party is not simple and it is not about MCA entering Gerakan or Gerakan entering MCA."

Gerakan and the MCA are to hold their party polls this October 26 and December 21 respectively. SUPP is expected to hold its elections in 2014.

Better to leave the BN if credibility is to be regained

Talks of a merger between Gerakan and MCA have surfaced since the 1980s, said Chang but both parties could never reach an agreement despite recent attempts in 2007 and 2011.

And although Chang did not mention it, it is clear that one of the main reasons behind the merger is to fight off the growing strength of the Chinese-based DAP and to a smaller extent the multiracial PKR - two members of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition that won 38 and 30 seat respectively in the May 5 general elections.

All 3 parties are basically Chinese-dominated, although Gerakan and SUPP have some non-Chinese members.

"Anything that is positive and benefits Malaysians is a good step forward. In this case, it is too early to tell whether Chinese and all other Malaysians will benefit from the merger. What I can see now is that the Chinese do not feel their interests and rights are well looked after by the MCA, Gerakan and SUPP. So a merger just for the sake of being bigger and perhaps more efficient may not work because the core grouses of voters are not being addressed," PKR vice president Chua Jui Meng told Malaysia Chronicle.

"I would say a merger exercise is very complex given that all three parties have been long established. So let's see first how sincere they are in getting it through and how they plan to make it work for the Chinese and other Malaysian voters. Otherwise, it's just another cosmetic puff, and it would be much better if they were to leave BN and regain their credibility this way."

Malaysia Chronicle