MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek has denied reports that the party has held possible merger talks with Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties Gerakan and Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP).

In an interview published by Oriental Daily yesterday, Dr Chua said: “I won’t say MCA will never merge with Gerakan, but currently the three Chinese-based BN component parties are not engaged in merger discussions”.

“At present, there is no meeting, neither are there any discussions on such matter,” he was quoted as saying in the interview.

He was responding to news reports in vernacular newspapers over the weekend that he had held talks with Gerakan president Dr Koh Tsu Koon and SUPP president Dr George Chan on the possibility of a merger of the three parties.

The reports said a meeting was recently held in Sarawak to explore the possibility of a merger of Chinese-based BN component parties and turn it into a new entity, that with a multi-racial platform, in order to garner bigger support.

It was reported that the idea was mooted following a significant swing in Chinese support toward the opposition since 2008 general election and worried the parties’ top leadership because if such a trend continues, it would have a significant impact in the next general election.

In the 2008 last general election, MCA only won 15 of the 40 parliamentary seats it contested while Gerakan only won two of the 12 parliamentary seats contested and was wiped out from its power base in Penang.

On the other hand, SUPP also suffered badly in Sarawak state election on April 16,  losing 13 of the 19 seats it had contested.

SUPP president Chan, who is also deputy chief minister at that time, was defeated by DAP’s rookie Ling Sie Kie in his stronghold of Piasau.

MCA secretary-general Kong Cho Ha, when contacted, also expressed his surprise over the report.

“I’m not aware of such talks. I have been away on official duty in UK for the past week,” he said.

Gerakan secretary-general Teng Chang Yeow also denied there was such talks, when contacted, while SUPP secretary-general Sim Kheng Hui said he was not aware of such talks.

- Bernama