Former MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik still has hope for the Chinese party’s revival.

“I still have hope that MCA will revive provided they do the right things,” he said in a press conference at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman’s Sungai Long campus today.

He, however, declined to provide examples of the right things that can be done by MCA to regain support from the Chinese community.

He was asked to respond to MCA which had decided to mobilise its machinery nationwide to obtain the support of Chinese voters in the lead-up to the next general election.

MCA president Liow Tiong Lai was quoted by English daily The Star as saying that the party’s national leaders would be meeting with state leaders soon to discuss the party’s strategy.

The party, which represents the country’s Chinese, performed dismally in the last national polls.

MCA only managed to win seven parliamentary and 11 state seats, compared with the 15 parliamentary and 32 state seats it secured in the 2008 general election.

And a Merdeka Center survey conducted last year found that the government’s approval rating was at an all-time low of 23 percent, with only five percent of Chinese voters supporting the government.