He said it was not time to dispose of race-based political outfits, and pointed to the formation of the opposition PPBM as a Malay-Muslim entity by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, a former Umno president, as proof.
“The fact that Dr Mahathir can set up PPBM proves that having race-based parties is still a trend among the people,” the plantation industries and commodities minister said.
“In the long run, I do hope that BN will be seen as a multi-racial party where there are less race-based components,” he told a press conference after the ‘MCA-Gerakan Stronger Together’ assembly at Wisma MCA here today.
Meanwhile, MCA president Liow Tiong Lai, who is transport minister, said there were no plans for the two BN parties to merge.
He said the assembly was to declare that MCA and Gerakan could come together solidly in the name of national development.
He added that he and Mah had held five meetings in the past two months.
“We have met up with the prime minister (Najib Razak) where an understanding pertaining to improving the people’s rights and development opportunities was reached,” he said.
He said Najib had mentioned in the BN Supreme Council meeting on Jan 3 that the government’s National Transformation Programme was beginning to yield results for economic growth.
“We want to prove that with unity we are able to realise more programmes, safeguard more rights, while serving the people and building the nation simultaneously,” he said.
Liow added that both the parties would conduct joint-roadshows while preparing to face the 14th general election (GE14).
“After this, MCA and Gerakan will embark on a nationwide ‘National Vision’ roadshow, to disseminate information on such achievements to the grassroots, and let the people have a clearer picture,” he said.
Earlier, Liow said in his speech that MCA and Gerakan would not make the same mistake in GE14 as they did in the previous two general elections.
“We made a big mistake, and we won’t repeat it,” he said.
He said MCA and Gerakan had learnt from their experience that cooperation should not just be confined between the parties’ leaderships but should also be among their grassroots.
“Today it is time we unleash the spirit of ‘stronger together’, support each other in the coming general election, and strive for a maximum synergy effect.
“In Gerakan constituencies, MCA will give our full support and assistance. Likewise, at MCA’s battlefields, our comrades in Gerakan will do the same,” he said.
MCA suffered its worst ever defeat in the election of May 2013 when it won only seven parliamentary seats of the 37 it contested, and 10 state seats in the 90 where its candidates ran.
It meant that the party lost more than half of the seats it had won in the election of March 2008 when it had attained 15 parliamentary and 31 state seats.