Gerakan president Dr Lim Keng Yaik said today that the MCA-Gerakan merger committee, currently headed by the parties' deputy presidents, should be upgraded to presidential level.

He said he would meet his MCA counterpart Ong Ka Ting soon to request for the upgrading to prove that MCA and Gerakan were serious in negotiating the merger.

"It will take time. How it will turn out, I don't want to speculate, but in the recent general election, the cooperation was very good, but it still needs a lot of improvement," Bernama quoted him as saying after his party's central committee meeting in Kuala Lumpur. 

On whether the merger could be realised by 2009, Dr Lim said there was no fixed time-frame. He said it was not an easy task as there were many areas to be fine-tuned.

"Don't expect the merger to be concluded in the near future," he said.

Follow directive 

On the meeting today, Lim said it agreed to adhere to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's directive to members of parliament and state assemblymen to declare their assets. 

"The meeting also agreed that members of parliament and assemblymen must set up service centres while those holding government posts must employ personal assistants to serve their constituencies," he said. 
The Gerakan boss also said the central committee instructed party elected representatives to submit their performance reports every three months to party secretary-general Chia Kwang Chye.
"The meeting also decided that elected representatives should stay away from business. If they have any business, particularly family business, they should leave it to other family members," Lim said.