Over the years, Gerakan has tried to change or reform the Barisan “from within” – or so it likes to claim. Clearly, it has failed. Did the BN instead end up changing Gerakan? The question on many people’s minds is, now what for the party that had governed Penang for close to 40 years?
In a personal comment piece for the New Sunday Times, the former state exco member for Penang, Toh Kin Woon, suggested several options for Gerakan after its disastrous performance in the general election:
One is to stay in BN and have more of the same, with the party unable to abandon its racial character. This is the least desirable for it may lead to the party’s oblivion.
The second is to stay and seek reforms from within. One major reform, and one which had been advocated earlier by the party’s Youth chief, is for all component parties to merge to form a truly multiracial BN.
Besides doing away with racial appeals, it will avert the seemingly lack of parity in the relationship between Umno and the rest.
It was this that had, in part, cost MCA, MIC and Gerakan dearly in the recent elections. The party must, however, give itself a time frame to pursue this major change.
Should it fail to achieve this within the given time span, it must then consider leaving BN and independently develop the party as a multiracial social democratic party.
It could, for instance, join forces with other like-minded parties outside BN to forge an even larger multiracial movement for greater democracy, ethnic equality, gender parity and social justice.
Ultimately, it is up to the leaders and party members to consider these, and other, options for a revival of the party. But reform and change it must, if it is to remain a force that can fulfil the ever-rising tide of expectations of the Malaysian electorate in a rapidly changing world.
This prompted Dr Choong Sim Poey, a life member of Gerakan, to send a letter to the NST. Unfortunately, what was published was only an “emasculated” version. Here is the full version. (The bits that the NST left out are in bold. It looks like you are still not allowed to be critical of Umno in the NST):
I refer to Dr Toh’s analysis of Gerakan’s problems (New SundayTimes, 23 March 2008). His concluding lines on the possibility of Gerakan leaving the BN coalition as one of their options to revive the Party is not as radical a suggestion as the public may think. It is an issue familiar to many senior party members.
Even in the 1980s when Tun Lim Chong Eu was the CM in Penang (and de facto leader of the Gerakan), the ‘unfair’ allocation of seats to component parties was a chronic bone of contention. Suggestions raised to break away for this reason were rejected as unseemly and opportunistic. Nevertheless, it was generally agreed that this should remain an option when key issues were in dispute especially when it went against our basic party principles and objectives
Unfortunately, over the years of BN/Umno dominance, this seemed to have been put aside in favour of ‘pragmatic’ politics. This meant accepting anything that the Umno leadership came out with to curry favour with their own members with a total disregard for the position of their coalition partners.
This was tested when Umno sought to undermine Pas by becoming an Islamic State and ‘Ketuanan Melayu‘ became the battle cry for Umno to regain their grass-roots support during which time there was not even a squeak from any Gerakan leaders.
This pragmatic approach to politics by Gerakan included condoning blatant opportunism and cronyism by Umno leaders in the name of the NEP. All this Gerakan willingly accepted in exchange for remaining ‘permanently’ under the BN’s comfort zone, nominally governing the state of Penang, until this shock election defeat.
I am writing this to put in historical perspective the position of Gerakan vis-a-vis the BN. I maintain that there was never any acceptance or assumption that Gerakan’s membership in the BN coalition was a permanent partnership to be maintained at all costs! The Gerakan leadership will now have to seriously consider if the cost paid in this election has been too high!
Dr Choong Sim Poey
Penang
So do you think Gerakan should remain in the BN and hope to influence any reform process in the ruling coalition – or do you think the BN is beyond redemption and Gerakan should leave?
No related posts.
Gerakan is the evil twin sister of MCA. To choose between them is to choose between a rock and a hard place. Thank God Penang is no longer caught between them. They chose money over principles. If they think they can get more by joining the BR, they must be more stupid than we thought.
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Another thing. What irked me, and probably alot of Penangites, was that they were so cocksure they would continue governing Penang, that they paraded three of their ‘best’ men as choices for the CM post. To add insult to injury, they then proposed a referendum. Look what they got in the end….the finger.
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Mr SP Choong, maybe you got PGCC alternative izzit?
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Honestly. No. I do not see Gerkan moving on its own. Its present leadership is weak and undecided. Even before the election, they could not name their choice of CM for Pg. It can become a vestigial party like the appendix in our intestines. It is there but with no function. No malice meant. Bcause it has been infected by the syncophant syndrome of the ruling party. Even to the extend of threatening disciplinary action on their Youth leader who spoke the truth. I see nothing, I hear nothing and I say nothing.
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“Hmm… after reading Dr Choong Sim Poey’s unadulterated letter to NST, I think Dr Lim Chong Eu has a lot to asnwer for.”
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Please do not blame Chong Eu…. Chong Eu was practically blackmailed and forced to join….Can you guys imagine the pressure on Chong Eu?
Stop believing on that “Choong” guy. As I said in an earlier post, where was that “Choong” guy all through those years?
If he was as concern as he has stated to be, why didn’t we see _ANYTHING_ from him, or his wife (at one time was a Penang state exco).
Sorry lah, whatever snake oil that “Choong” guy wants to sell, it would never work on me.
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Gerakan has at this moment no credibilty. It sold itself to the devil and its leaders, except for a few, soiled their hands by being UMNO’s running d*** and making hay while the sun shone. They lined their pocket while their members and supporters suffered from an excess of UMNOism. There may be hope yet, if Gerakan leaves the Barisan National and reform itself by shedding all those corrupted (politicians) who have acquired the culture that has been part of Barisan National since the late eighties.
Too late maybe, as many of its supporters are behind the PKR-DAP-PAS coalition, and it will take an enormous amount
of sacrifice and public relations before it can be acceptable to the masses. The earlier it leaves BN the better it can start the reformation process.
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Only Gerakan can represents the current multiracial society compared with MIC (Indian),MCA (Chinese) & UMNO (Malays). We are already advance for 50 years and this sort of parties is no more relevant in Malaysia. We are bangsa Malaysia and not Malaysian Malay/Indian?Chinese……and doesn’t needs this stupid party to fight for our communities…..so wake up please.
Gerakan…..please wake up and switch camp immediately and i will 101% fully support your quest for a cause. You’re a force to be reckoned with.
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Gerakan must live by its main priciple of Malaysian Malaysia; if not they should move aside and let other Parties to do the job. Asked yourselves what happened in the last 40 years when you could have done something. You could have an opposition Government in Penang like PAS in Kelantan. Penagites would have gladly supported you at ALL COST.
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GERAKAN and SUPP have no different in the eyes of Barisan Nasional. Though the multi-racial concept is sworn in the party’s the but the party has lost it mission for the country.SUPP did the same to the Dayak too. As the BN allied member SUPP used every opportunity to be on the top of the State BN party and sidelined some crucial issue especially multi-racial needs.
Why GERAKAN has it credibility and might to be a good party. DAP is a good example how multi-racial is really practiced. GERAKAN has to quit and restructure itself for the next General Election. Even MIC and MCA are working as BN’s running d**. In Sarawak and Sabah, all the non-UMNO party have to be the running d** for UMNO.
visit my blog for more about Sarawak Aborigines Party at http://tbsbidayuh.blogspot.com
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Party Gerakan is irrelevant in today’s political environment. It is multiracial party who is RELEVANT and going to take Malaysia to the next decades. Let Gerakan be done with it, those who want to remain can remain and rot together with their “Master”, and for those who is bold and brave enough and really cares about bangsa Malaysia, should leave this redundant party behind and join forces with Barisan Rakyat.
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Gerakan is a paradox. It claims to be multi-racial and yet not a single non-Malay from its membership was fielded in the last GE. To speak of Mmulti-racialism and yet condone and contribute towards UMNO hegemony, the Islamic Sate declaration, the abetting of the abuse of NEP, abeting in the cronyism that profits Badawi family related companies, is an oxymoron.
Gerakan is tainted by all that nauseats the very mention of UMNO. Gerakan is indeed a willing collborator as well as a beneficiary of all the systemic abuse that was put in place to destroy the very fabric of Malaysian society.
I suggest that they remain in BN and self-destruct. Coming out of BN now may just adulterate and obliterate what BR has to do to give itself definition of what it is and what it is to be. Gerakan please stay in BN so that without you confusing the issue, PKR, DAP and PAS can together define what the new politics in Malaysia is to be.
Gerakan may have claimed itself to be multi-racial and not a single race party and it could be advocating this for the BN right now. But just like any drug addict, all it needed was an UMNO fix and it got sucked into the hazy world of the ecstacy craze.
There is a Bangsa Malaysia spirit that is happening. Some of us have experienced it. And we know that it feels good. To describe it may be premature as I would not wish to begin characterising and then find myself trapped with a half-baked cookie. I would like to see it grow some more.
Gerakan with its baggage can only confuse with their sense of multi-racialism. What they can do if they are uncomfortable staying with BN is to one by one resign from Gerakan, take a vacation, and if they still feel politics is in their blood, apply to become DAP or PKR or PAS members. I don’t think the BR needs a 4th party to confuse things any further. AFter all between PKR, DAP and PAS one ought to find a home most accomodating to you.
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The party should change its name to :
“Multiracial Gerakan” .
Then dream & wait for Umno to change its name to “Multiracial Umno “.
Syabas. Barisan Rakyat.
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Gerakan had lost it’s plot shortly after LKY took over the reins of the party and KTK took over Penang from Tun Lim Chong Eu. I have very little to say of Gerakan the party except to (as in my previous comment) roll over and die. To be fair there are still a few good men in the party and to them, my advise would be for them to get up and walk out of the party which has forgotten all the dreams of their founders.
My gripe if with the Rape and pillage of Penang, my home island. As the saying goes about the fence eating the padi, KTK had practically singlehandedly stood by and allowed the island to be drawn and quartered. Lim Guan Eng’s “polte “comments about “Questionable land deals” is just the beginnings of an exposure of a whole can of worms which KTK and his cronies and masters must be answerable to. Guan Eng also mentioned that Penang having a financial reserve of only Rm200 odd million now that the BR has taken over. KTK has to explain in detail what happened to the BILLIONs that was in Penang’s kitty when he took over from Tun Lim Chong Eu. Penang has lost the attraction it held as the premier tourist destination during the nearly 20 over years under KTK. Whatever happened to the exciting International Dragon Boat festival which was a major international before the removal of Lim Chien Aun as it’s prime mover? Yes, the KTK clique had a hand in removing members of their own if these members are threats to the clique members themselves.
In short, members of Gerakan should consider walking out rather than be tarred with the same s*** that their selfish, greedy and toadying leaders have brought to the party.
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dr toh, an ex-state exco, has conceded that it is near impossible to change UMNO from within. and the leadership of Gerakan is more concern about their goodies that come along with their position. put these factors together, the answer is as clear as daylight. time for Gerakan to go back to their roots;otherwise its a matter of time the party will degenerate into another PPP with third class status within BN.
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HI:
GERAKAN MAY BE A TROJAN HORSE
READ MY BLOG AT KOPITIAM.BLOG.COM
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GERAKAN and any other BN parties does not or will not matter anymore if they still want to be ignorant and in denial of the fact that a lot of people rejected them because of many reasons .. for being arrogant, hypocrite and self-centered
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Gerakan members are very frustrated to their own leadership. Koh Tsu Koon is a very self – centered person and did not allowed their members to voice out during Gerakan was in power. Before the election, gerakan members have foreseen that their party will not win victory in the coming election due to a lot o issues. They also very angry to their party leader on Penang CM issue.
Koh tsu Koon has to decided their direction as soon as possible whether he will stay or leave. He must annouce who is the successor after he had made their decision.
He didn’t do it instead he let UMNO to make decision.
He even not dare to oppose when UMNO youth shouted on him.
To reinvent the party, Koh Tsu Koon should step down.
He can be a good administrator but not a politic leader.
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Gerakan has a lot of leader who are more capable than Koh Tsu koon In terms of leadership. Exp: Dr. Toh , Lee Kah Chun, Mah Siu Keong, Teng Chan Yao, Chia Kwang Chye …
To reinvent the party, Koh has no more excuses to remain as party acting president.
I would like to challenge Gerakan’s youth wing to remove their uncapable leader.
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Does Gerakan do what the party suppose to do ?
Gerakan’s Objectives
1. Constitution Of Malaysia & Rukunegara
To honour and uphold the Constitution of Malaysia and to sustain the tenets of the Rukunegara.
2. Egalitarian Malaysian Society
To strive for an egalitarian Malaysian Society based on humanitarian and democratic principles and to ensure social and economic justice by:
eliminating any exploitation and giving full opportunity to everyone for legitimate economic advancement;
promoting a just and equitable distribution of wealth;
providing adequate and efficient facilities and amenities with proper regulatory control to ensure fair and just pricing;
ensuring the ownership of economic lots of land by tile peasants and others and their efficient utilisation;
encouraging and promoting healthy trade unionism and uplifting the conditions and standard of living of the working population;
eliminating all forms of gender-based discrimination.
3.Unity
To preserve and strengthen the unity and the, happiness of the people in a spirit of understanding, tolerance and goodwill.
4.Economic And Cultural Advancement
To promote and ensure the economic and cultural advancement of all communities in the development of national identity.
5.Advancement Of The Poor And The Backward
To eliminate the conditions which cause economic backwardness amongst our people; to protect the economically weak from exploitation and to encourage, assist and strengthen their participation in economic activities.
6.Civil And Other Services
To ensure well organised and efficient civil and other services.
7.Family
To uphold the institution of the family.
8.Religious Tolerance
To encourage and promote respect and tolerance for the religious life of all communities.
9.Anti Corruption
To eliminate corruption in all forms.
10.Languages
To uphold Bahasa Malaysia as the National Language, to preserve and sustain the use and study of the Chinese, Tamil, English and other languages of the Malaysian communities.
11.Free Education
To provide free education for Children up to the age of 18.
12.Co-operation With Other Political Organisations
To co-operate with other political organisations with similar aims and objects on a Malaysian basis in joint
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Do you think Gerakan still has a role to play in this post-308GE era? I suggest the leadership listen to the people and not the members only for at the end of the day, it is the people that determine the survival of Gerakan.
Question 1: To leave or not to leave BN?
Question 2: To join or not to join BR?
Question 3: To dissolve or not to dissolve the party? and allow th party to join other political parties
Question 4: To go solo and offer itself as 3rd option to the people?
So, what say you?
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Personally Gerakan was never in existance, but only used as a hood wink, by UMNO to tell, Penangites, “hello keep voting for the multiracial party of Gerakan and you will enjoy equal rights in the country”. While the selected few Gerakan members were enjoying from the bait, the public was put under the threat of MAY 13.
In actaul fact we Penangites should have thrown out the BN in 1990. By our complacancy Penang started detoriating from, what was rightfully theirs, same senario spilled over to other states. I am very sure what has turn out to be on March 8, is a lesson not for BN to learn but, for Penangites to have a Peoples Government, that views TRANSPARENCY, GOOD GOVERNANCE, ACCOUNTABILITY, RESPONSIBILITY AND DUTY TOWARDS ALL CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY. …
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Gerakan must leave the BN but cannot join another aprty or coalition. Gerakan can stad alone and build itself up again. Gerakan is a better brand name than PKR, anytime. Gerakan is just unfortunate to be in the company of a racist party like UMNO.
Gerakan, go it alone. Gerakan is a better and more viable option than the BN at least in Penang comes the next election.
Away from BN, Gerakan has a good future. In BN, Gerakan will die ahead of UMNO.
Except for the few … mamak, even the malays will soon ditch UMNO for an alternative party. UMNO is already rotten to the core and it does not make sense for the malays to want to stay put in UMNO and “die” with it.
There should not be sentiments in politics.
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Then the three stooges became two……..
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Gerakan had tried to reform the BN from within, and what has it got to show – that it has, instead, been transformed by UMNO !
In it deliberations now, it should ponder, very carefully the options opened. The scenarios Dr. Toh and Dr. Choong have painted for its deliberations are very near to the truth. They may not be pretty but they are the hard realities facing Gerakan.
To stay in the BN and to have more of the same, is like buying a one-way ticket to “Doomsday’.
To stay and to seek reform from within, trying to get all the parties in the BN to merge to form a multi-racial BN doesn’t seem feasible. UMNO, is still bent on fighting for the the rights and honor of the Malays. There are still many self-proclaimed ‘defenders’ in UMNO (Haishammuddin, Khairy J, Nazir A, Aziz, Ali Rustam Mohd. Ali, M2 Taib) and now, waiting in the wings, are, Mohamad Hasan, Azhar Ibrahim.
It leaves Gerakan not much of a choice, but to seriously consider leaving the coalition. All the parties in the BN had been too long mired in racial politics, to be able to make a clean break from it. Gerakan cannot hope to survive in the same environment!
MCA, MIC, and PPP are in the same boat as the Gerakan. The points laid out below, apply to them equally.
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Since when is Gerakan a multi racial party? Yes, during THOSE years when Dominic Puthuchery stood for elections etc but then it became a chinese base party….streamlining to an elite based, educated chinese party.
Its easy to blame UMNO….but the Malays especially in Penang did give its votes to BN Chinese candidates. Figures will speak for itself, but not the chinese community, they played out BN, for being too kind and giving everything that they asked for. The Chinese Chambers of Commerce played their role in the demise of Gerakan in Penang, thanks to certain individuals. Thats a fact!
When UMNO won a majority of it seats the last time and Gerakan lost out to them…..they gave the CMship to Gerakan. So who is being racial here? Its DAP. they played the cards right this time, telling the chinese that its UMNO that choose the CM…..telling PAS to drop the Islamic state issue and PKR being the moderator.
Those making comments here stop being racist. Look at BN own faults. They never came as one right till the end. Koh Tsu Koon should have just nominated his successor and get on with the elections. Kaveas forever asking for seats….UMNO gave its seat to Gerakan, in spirit of BN. The Malays have always been giving in…..but they will come a stage where they will stop and there is a danger it will, soon enough.
Leaving a sinking ship? Go ahead.
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