PETALING JAYA, July 23 — Unifying the Chinese-based parties in Barisan Nasional (BN) will allow them to emulate Umno as the sole representative of their community, according to former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

On Sunday, the BN component parties of the MCA, Gerakan and SUPP were reported to be considering a possible merger in light of the continued snub by the Chinese community they profess to represent.

Speaking in Alor Star yesterday, Dr Mahathir (picture) said the proposal would aid efforts to rekindle support by the Chinese for BN.

“The merger is no matter. As we can see, there is only one Malay party (Umno) in BN. I think it would be easier if they merge, if not they will detract from one another’s support,” the former PM was quoted as saying by Utusan Malaysia yesterday.

According to press reports during the weekend, Gerakan acting president Chang Ko Youn said he has broached the subject with his counterparts in the MCA and SUPP respectively, Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek and Datuk Seri Peter Chin.

“But the decision will only be made once all the parties have elected their new leaders, which should be in October,” Chang was quoted as saying at a press conference.

“What is important now is for MCA to solve its internal issues; Gerakan, too. And to form a new party is not as easy as people think. It is not simply MCA joining Gerakan or vice-versa.

“We are different, so we must discuss this,” he added.

Yesterday, Dr Mahathir explained that no one has written off Chinese support for BN, although but said their attitude needed correction to prevent them from being influenced by negative opinions towards the coalition.

“I believe it is possible (to regain their support). I used to be hated by the Chinese who considered me a Malay ultra,” he said in the report.

“They did not support me when I became PM in 1981, but in Election 1999 the Chinese support surpassed the Malays; that’s why I got a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

“So we cannot say that the Chinese will never support BN,” he added.

During Election 2013, the MCA, Gerakan and SUPP recorded their worst-ever electoral performance together with the larger BN coalition in what was initially described as a “Chinese tsunami”.

In the May 5 polls, Gerakan was nearly wiped out from Parliament, winning a single federal seat. The MCA also continued its slide from five years prior, managing only seven of the 37 constituencies it contested.

While it has since been shown that the coalition’s results were not solely due to any single community, the abandonment of the three Chinese-based parties was abundantly clear. 

Since the general election, Gerakan has pushed for a unification of all BN parties into a single entity without regard to ethnicity, saying the coalition must abandon its current race-based politics if it is to survive future elections.

But the notion was shot down within BN, primarily by its lynchpin Umno ― which was the only party in the 13-member coalition that saw its position improve in the general election. The Malay party now holds the lion’s share ― 88 federal seats ― of the 133 that BN won, up from 79 in Election 2008.