Gerakan is ready to merge with the MCA or even Umno as long as the parties change their constitution to open membership to all races, said Gerakan national speaker Tan Sri Dr Chin Fook Weng.
“MCA can change to Malaysian Citizens Association instead of Malaysian Chinese Association or Umno can be United Malaysians National Organisation,” he said at a press conference this morning.
Stating that Gerakan has been a Malaysian party open to all races from the start, Chin revealed that the party had contemplated merging with the MCA if the latter was willing to change its party constitution to allow other races to join the party.
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“We can’t ask our non-Chinese members to join other parties so MCA has to open to all races before we merge with them,” he said.
Commenting on a proposal for Barisan Nasional (BN) to become a single party, Chin felt that it was time that BN changed when the younger generation was asking for change.
“BN may even need to change its party logo from the ‘dacing’ to something else or its blue party colour to another colour like green.
“It is time that we changed to follow the aspirations of the people to be relevant at this time,” he said.
He said Gerakan was formed with the intention to be a Malaysian party so merging all BN components into one is an eventuality that will be good for the coalition especially when the younger generation wants a change.
However, Chin felt that it would be difficult for BN to merge into one party now as there are going to be challenges and differing opinions by different groups.
“If it is easy, it would have been done a long time ago so that’s why they need more time to study and mull over it,” he said.
He believed that there are still Malaysians who have yet to come to a Malaysian way of thinking and are still thinking along racial lines.
He cited the furore by Dong Zong over the Deputy Education Minister Mary Yap being unable to read or write Chinese as an example of groups who are still thinking along the lines that only a Chinese who reads and write Chinese can better understand their cause.
“When Gerakan was formed in 1968, we decided to make it a Malaysian party open to all races because we expect to become bigger so by merging all BN components into one, it will fulfil our original goal,” he said.
