Gerakan will not join PH or merge with MCA: VP

GERAKAN vice-president Datuk Dominic Lau Hoe Chai says the party will not join Pakatan Harapan or seek a merger with MCA.
He told China Press this when asked to comment on PH vice-president Salahuddin Ayub's remark that Gerakan is welcome to join the coalition following its decision to leave Barisan Nasional.
Asked whether he himself would consider joining a PH component party, such as DAP, in response to the remark by many people that he is in the wrong party, Lau stressed that he will not abandon ship.
On the point made by the party in announcing its decision to withdraw from BN, that the party will work with multi-ethnic political parties with similar ideologies as Gerakan, he said this is something "for the future".
"As for the next two years, (the party will) focus on putting the house in order, what happens thereon, we'll leave it to the new leadership."
Lau said the suggestion for Gerakan and MCA to merge had been made way back when Gerakan was helmed by Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu.
Along the way, the two parties had held talks on the proposal but nothing came of them due to their differences in ideology and racial composition, he added.
On the party's decision to quit BN, he said it has nothing to do with the exodus of other component parties from the coalition.
Gerakan is leaving BN because it has no more role to play in the coalition, he said, adding that the party has never been treated as an equal partner by others in the coalition.
Besides, he said the decision is also in keeping with the wishes of party members.