MCA will not become part of government at any level if the party’s performance in the next general election is worse than what happened in 2008, said MCA president Chua Soi Lek.

He stressed that if MCA was unable to gain support from the Chinese community, then the party will reject any federal, state and local government posts, so as to reflect the spirit of democracy by letting the people choose their desired government.

He said that the party will take the performance of the last general election, which is 15 parliamentary seats and 31 state seats, as the benchmark for the next general election, and will reject any cabinet posts if what the party gains in the 13th general election is less than that.

“We don’t want the people to misunderstand that the struggle of MCA is just to become the government. We serve the people from our hearts, but we have to admit that sometime we can’t a hundred percent fulfill the desire of the Chinese community,” he said during a press conference after chairing the MCA presidential council meeting.

He said that this was decided by the council during the meeting.

However, he stated that the decision must be approved by the party AGM which will be held on Aug 2, and MCA will remain in BN if they are really unable to hold any cabinet posts.

When ask about whether MCA will send more new faces to contest in the coming general election, Chua said that the meeting didn’t discuss this issue, but he thought that newcomers may not have the ability to solve the existing problem, as it does not mean that their chance to win is higher.

Speaking of the former party president Ong Ka Ting who declared that he will not contest in the next general election, he praised the Kulai MP for setting a good example as a leader by paving the way for the introduction of new faces in the party.