Andrew Aeria, a former lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, said until now, there had been no talk from opposition parties about reinventing themselves.

He was responding to MCA presidential candidate Gan Ping Sieu’s pledge that he would lead the party out of BN if he is elected.

“The era of race-based politics is over in this country. That is something MCA needs to acknowledge.

“They have to reinvent themselves as a multiracial party in a positive and constructive way, otherwise there is no way they can survive in the current political climate,” he told FMT.

Andrew also advised MCA to think about how it could offer substantive ideas to form a strong opposition front.

“Its history with Umno goes a long way back. From day one, it was teaming up with Umno. They have always been interlinked in politics.

“To go alone may not be the best idea for MCA.”

Andrew said even Umno needed to look at itself in the mirror and come up with a constructive way to reform the party. “All they do is scream about race,” he said, adding that the party seemed neither alive nor dead.

“What is happening now with the opposition is that, none of them is talking about how to form a strong opposition front. That is very bad for the current government.

“If MCA leaves, so what? The parties forming GPS in Sarawak leave, so what?

“Instead of talking about staying or leaving, they should get cracking on how to survive in this current political landscape.”