Last night, Mustafa and I spoke at a Gerakan ‘teh tarik’ session on the outcome of the Permatang Pauh by-election and its implications.
I was surprised to see the level of interest among those who attended, including non-Gerakan members as well. Many were keen to know whether Anwar would get his 30 MPs by 16 September.
I told them I had no idea. I stressed to them the importance of institutional checks and balances. We cannot rely on a strong personality alone to bring about change. We need deeper institutional reforms – to the judiciary, police, ACA, Parliament, Election Commission and Suhakam. We also need a change in the mindset among politicians so that they really serve the rakyat and not themselves.
Towards the end of my presentation, I threw up several scenarios for Gerakan to consider.
- Remain in BN
- but it’s sinking, mired as it is in racial politics
- can it abandon racial politics and turn into a multi-racial coalition?
- just as important, can it get rid of money politics, cronyism, corruption?
- Pull out and join Pakatan Rakyat
- but do they have place for you, beyond adding another feather to the PR cap?
- merge with one of the existing PR parties
- Pull out and become an opposition party
- return to the party’s roots with a clear ideology
- become a genuine multi-ethnic party
- turn into national-level opposition party or an opposition party in Penang
- but for that to happen, it needs a leadership revamp
- and equally important, do Gerakan members have what it takes to survive in the opposition?
- and does the party think it has too much to lose in terms of being part of govt in certain states?
- The final option, which I didn’t mention last night, is just disband and allow its members to decide which parties they want to join.
That said, I do think that Penang in particular needs a multi-ethnic opposition party to serve as a check and balance. Whether Gerakan can play that role remains to be seen. But a leadership revamp is needed first.
Here’s a response from Plain Truth:
Every time it rains heavily, Georgetown floods.
Even if the petrol price at the pumps were to hit RM5.00, Penangites will still have to use their cars for want of a reliable public transport system.
18 years at the helm and KTK could not even fix such basic problems as flood mitigation and putting in place a reliable public transport network.
Instead we are hit with the disgusting land scams revelations which KTK neatly side-stepped (most of it) in his recent debate with LGE.
If the Gerakan membership do not even see fit to revamp their current leadership, it will be better for Gerakan to die a natural death – better for Penang, anyway.
After all, it is a party that has parted with the ideals of its founding fathers a long time back.
What do you think?
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Hi Anil
In my humble opinion, what is needed most of all
is a change in the mindset of the ordinary people.
1. That the people are sovereign and that we are the ones
who choose (and dispose of) our “leaders”. They are to serve us
and not lord over us
2. That the “government’s money” is actually our money paid through
hard-earned tax-payer ringgit. Therefore the govt has a
responsibility to manage the people’s money properly.
3. That we are the real employers of the civil service and that they
are there to serve us.
4. That those in power who commit violence and other crimes to stay
in power will be punished sooner or later. History tells us this.
So do recent examples such as Slobodan Milosevich and Radovan
Karadzich in Serbia/Bosnia, the Khmer Rouge mass murderers in
Cambodia. If you do nasty things to your political opponents
when you are in power, be prepared for the consequences when you
are out of power under a democratic regime.
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The 3rd one is better for them.
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it’s hard to fix a problem if you don’t even think it exists
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The 3rd is the best for them, but when you have leaders like Tsu Koon who cant see the forest for the trees , prob too late.
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the leaders will not allow gerakan to jump ship.
read today’s headlines in the sun paper on land grabbing in Bandar Utama and you will understand why. the gravy is too good to let go.
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I wasn’t around to witness the original ideology of Gerakan. But when I first learnt it last March, I was deeply moved. Gerakan WAS way ahead of its time with great leaders.
I couldn’t agree more on the current leadership change requirement. Nice guy might not be able to lead.
The current Gerakan is lack of leadership, lack of direction.
We need a strong political party to look after Penang, for it is opposition or government. We need Gerakan. Get back in shape, Gerakan! We need you, but we do not need you with your current state of despair. Be vocal, be passionate, be a Rakyat.
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Hi Anil,
Just let the party die of natural death as the leaders are oblivious and still in denial.You can wake up a sleeping person but cannot wake up those pretending to be sleeping. Leave them alone and let their members make their own decision as some of them have done most recently.
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As long as Koh Tsu Koon is at the helm, he is going to drive Gerakan down, just as what he did with his leadership as CM of Penang. For so many years did he flex his muscle to UMNO as the CM? We even have UMNO Youth putting up banners critisising him and he did nothing. He treasured the post of CM too much. He puts too much hope on UMNO which itself is a sinking ship.
Drastic actions are required but are the members ready to rebel?
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To me, Gerakan has already had its chance. And what did they do with it?
They turned it into an old boys’ club. Some, who made up part of the leadership, were quite socialist in their thinking during their youth, thanks to an expensive education in Britain, during an era when it wasn’t politically correct to be rich. That all went out the window once they were in power.
And the arrogance shown by Koh, with his national aspirations and taking for granted that Penang was in Gerakan’s pocket. A bit like someone having one leg in one boat and one in another.
Gerakan should have backed Anwar in his hour of need. As the saying goes, ‘if only…’.
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who cares about the survival of gerakan?
the ultimate endpoint is the people.
option 1 is pure stupidity and option 3 is just about preserving your own ego.
if sacrificing the priviledge of power to return the power to the poeple than that is what the current leaders of gerakan should do.
DSAI has done that by going to prison, sacrificing his health to finally achieving what he has done today.
if the a leader is unwilling to do what is right for the people, and they have to err when it comes to their own interest, then they are not qualified to lead a desperate nation like ours.
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There is another option Anil – merge with Sarawak base SUPP (a Chinese dominated party). I think Koh met George Chan sometimes back. I didn’t know what was the meeting for but – I suspect in has something to do – about politics.
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Anil,
This topic was hotly debated in Dr. Hsu’s Forum.
To me, the best option for Gerakan is to “Pull out and become an opposition party ” and concentrate in Penang, their lost bastion.
But this option will be still ‘hard to swallow’ for their top leaders as they will lose their “carrots” from Umno. So, in the end, it is better for Gerakan to disband as all members with conscience will surely leave the party.
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Gerakan is a nobody’s child. Blinded and lost its direction due to blind leaders. Maybe it’s a legacy of Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu that his parties always ended up disbanded viz. Radical and UDP.
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My view
MPs can pull out from BN, but I feel P.Rakyat is still have not come to a common stand, need to iron out, quite number of issues. If you have watched Aljazeera Last night interview with DSAI, question on dropping NEP, Islamic State, Special right etc. DSAI answered with a mission statement but than have the three parties discussed on it?
The three parties PKR, PAS & DAP had their own agenda & policies, but than only common view for March 8th Election, is to deny the 2/3 majority, well 5 state to fall in Oposition’s hand came in as surpise. We don’t want to sleep in same bed & have different dreams.
We can see what’s happening in Pakistan, Parties pulling out from coalition due to not in agreeing terms to one another. All they wanted is Musharaf to be out, which happened but now?
Pakatan Rakyat must be formed with on strong fundation, let 16th sept to pass, no need to rush, let the 16th Sept be ghostly date for BN boys.
On the other hand P.Rakyat should filter/screen the MPs who wanted to cross over. We don’t want to form another version of BN which is about sink anytime.
It was our hope to see Change, we the Rakyat has chosen the three parties, Pls do don’t disapoint us.
Joc
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Just join PR.
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Dear Anil
Gerakan is as good as dead – (some of) their leaders has corrupted the organization with UMNO values of their right to lead without understanding the duty of serving. Gerakan has evolved into another MCA, where the leaders use the offices to …. rather to serve our country and ignore the basis of their existence which is to serve their supporters. It is therefore only logical that in the next few months, the cross overs of Gerakan into DAP and PKR will accelerate.
Gerakan, in my opnion will simply diminish, as its members turn to SDAP and PKR, both of which serves the platforms which Gerakan claims to pursue but failed. The same is true of MCA and MIC, both of which are seen by the constituents as tools of UMNO to perpetuate the racist policies of ketuanan Melayu. The promotion of racial slurs by UMNO in the mass media will serve to hasten the demise of these component parties.
In Johor, the talk of Anwar’s Harapan Baru is the hottest topic in coffee shops. Even Johor, the stronghold of UMNO will fall in the small towns if Barisan fails to counter the non racial platform of PKR.
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I suggest they close down gerakan, join pakatan, and work together. Old leader should be get rid if they still hold the same view as BN. BN is now at the edge of their route. Its waiting to sink due to their insensitivity toward the public.
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Let’s be frankly, most of the grassroot of MIC, MCA & Gerakan in the PR controlled states had already signal to jump ship if the BN especially UMNO still in denial mode and did not bother to look into the problem and work out a revamp solution… As at now, I did not see it will happen, but go more extreme.
It’s expected that they all will soon abandon the BN ship leaving only their leaders who still believe that there is hope remain and a cause to fight for… Whereby Rakyat have already deserted them…
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Gerakan don’t have the courage to pull out of BN, Gerakan’s leadership is getting weaker. I certainly don’t want Gerakan joining Pakatan Rakyat, if Gerakan can’t do it as part of the government, i really doubt whether they can do it in Pakatan. In fact, whether Gerakan, MCA or MIC joining Pakatan will only weaken Pakatan Rakyat, they simple don’t have anything to offer to the people and pakatan. The only way is to go independent and get a clear ideology, revamp the whole party, chop should be start from the top. Only then, we will be able to see a good party.
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Gerakan is like a disabled person sitting on a wheel chair…a non performing party, either to BN or to the nation as a whole. They are neither here nor there. If Malaysia is moving towards a two party system of government, they (Gerakan) could form a third force, a coalition with MCA and MIC as a watch dog, middle road party…rather be tagged as a beggar party to UMNO.
Time has changed and if the mindset of these dependent parties do not
adjust to the present situation, they will soon be history.
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Not of any use a redundant party.
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unfortunately, gerakan is fully depending on UMNO/BN for survival now.
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3 rd option and become opposition – opposition to whom? BN or PK or both of them. In this case Gerakan will remain as an oppostion party. Just like at Social Democrats in UK or Democratic Party in Australia – or like the Greens just shout and shout but cannot do anything. Futher without any support from malays it will die slowly like Pekemas.
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Gerakan is past due date, expired. whether they join Pakatan or remain in Barisan will not effect any significant change to Malaysian Politics.
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One possible reason that we should not discount regarding MPs jumping ship is that everyone of them have taken their 40 pieces of gold (the price Judas got for betraying Jesus). Hence this is used by the BN federal and states leadership to keep them in line. “You jump and I’ll spill the dirt on you” is the message.
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