Disunity in Barisan Nasional parties has affected the performance of the coalition in past elections and this is why it was critical to resolve the MCA crisis, Umno vice-president Muhammad Muhd Taib said today.

He said the 1987 split within Umno resulted in BN losing Kelantan to PAS in the general election three years later.

In the 1999 elections, Terengganu fell to PAS following the sacking of former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim a year before.

In both cases, it took Umno a long time to recover and the party also paid a high price by losing the two states, Taib told malaysiakini .

The Umno leader said this was the main reason why a peace agenda was formulated to resolve the crisis in MCA.

Following the partys acquisition of two Chinese dailies last May, MCA spilt into two camps — Team A led by party president Dr Ling Liong Sik, that favoured the deal and Team B helmed by deputy president Lim Ah Lek.

The quagmire came to an end when Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad stepped in and proposed a peace agenda.

The peace agenda stipulated that the status quo will apply to party posts at all levels until 2005.

It was widely believed that the move was to avoid a disruption to Chinese support for BN in the next general election which must be called by 2004.

Lending credence to this speculation, Taib said the Umno leadership wants the MCA crisis to end as it could affect BNs performance.

We need a strong MCA to help deliver in constituencies where BN needs Chinese votes to win, he added..