Today, Gerakan is still lost. It clings to Barisan Nasional and refuses to extricate itself from the monster that is bringing this country down. Gerakan just can’t see that its future is not with Barisan Nasional. The country’s future is not with Barisan Nasional.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Teng dismisses call to break ranks
A Gerakan leader brushed aside a suggestion that the party break ranks with Barisan Nasional just because it had differences of opinions with "big brother" Umno on a number of issues.
Its vice-president Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan said differences of opinions between the party and Umno were common in a coalition political system.
“Issues such as the third vote, ISA and Kulim Bandar Baharu MP Zulkifli Noordin are not issues big enough to warrant a split in ranks,” he told Free Malaysia Today today.
Dismissing widespread perception of Gerakan being under Umno's thumb, he claimed that all BN parties were equal in political representation in the coalition's supreme council.
He said all component parties were allowed equal democratic space to voice their opinions on various issues.
Therefore, he said it was not unusual for Gerakan to have different opinions and views with other partners, especially Umno, on any contentious issue.
Such differences, he said, were healthier for the coalition as it would allow for an eventual adoption of a unanimous stance on a particular issue.
“The differences were on small issues... they don't grant a divorce,” said Teng, the Penang Gerakan chairman.
However, he did not rule out the possibility that Gerakan may opt out of BN if there were “big issues involved”.
He did not elaborate the type of issues that Gerakan would consider “big”.
He was commenting on the growing public demand for Gerakan to break ranks with BN to either join Pakatan Rakyat or become an independent party.
Conduct poll on local elections
While Umno is against restoring the local government elections, Kedah Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng has supported the attempts by Pakatan state governments in Penang and Selangor to reintroduce the council polls.
Municipality elections were suspended since 1965 following the Indonesian confrontation. The suspension was then institutionalised via the Local Government Act 1976.
Tan views local elections as more beneficial than detrimental to nation building.
He urged Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to assist the Pakatan governments to conduct the polls, including making amendments to related by-laws.
Teng recently called on Umno not to accept PKR outcast Zulkifli into its ranks, labelling the MP as “a person with extreme religious agenda that would undermine other BN partners”.
He said that Zulkifli's entry to Umno would be detrimental to BN because the reasons were so obvious. “He could not accept multi-racial politics".
He said since it would affect other BN partners, Gerakan might as well oppose such a move.
“Gerakan is not meddling in Umno's affair,” he said, addding that his party would raise this issue at the next BN supreme council meeting.
Teng said Gerakan welcomed the third vote because it believed in local democracy and there is a growing public demand for it.
“Restoring local government elections would reflect grassroots sentiments,” he said. - Free Malaysia Today
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Our family was never political. My grandfather, Raja Sir Tun Uda, was the Governor of Penang when first MCA and then Gerakan ruled the state. He had been the Governor, the first in fact, since Merdeka in 1957.
My grandfather was very close to Malaysia’s first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, as well as with the Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein. You could say he was buddies with them and would socialise with these two top men of Malaysia. The strange thing, however, is that my grandfather never became an Umno member. And neither did my father or any of his brothers.
You can’t say, though, that my father did not have the interest of the Malays at heart. When Walls, the ice cream manufacturer, first set up its factory in Bangsar under the Lever Brothers (now Unilever) banner, my father tried to get Malays involved in the ice cream vendor business.
Walls offered to give Malays free bicycles (in those days the vendors sold ice cream using bicycles) plus stocks of ice cream on consignment. So, basically, no capital was required. Walls would finance Malays to start their ice cream vendor business. And this was before the New Economic Policy of 1970.
But no Malays came forward. So Walls extended the offer to Chinese and Indians and there was a flood of applications. Can you remember back in the 1960s they would go round on bicycles selling ice cream? And can you remember that hardly any were Malays? They were mostly Chinese and Indians.
I remember my father coming home from office one day talking about it. He usually never talked about his work. But this time he just could not contain his disappointment. He was sincerely trying to help Malays get into the ice cream vendor business but the Malays were just not interested. But when he opened that opportunity to Chinese and Indians there was almost a riot. The response was so overwhelming that it almost brought tears to my father’s eyes because he felt that the Malays had lost a great opportunity.
I had not yet turned 18 and therefore not even old enough to vote. So politics was definitely furthest from my mind, as it is with most teenagers. And the fact that our family was apolitical made it worse.
My father, in fact, looked down on politicians. It is not that he did not personally know most of them. Many were his contemporaries in school and in university in UK (Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Abdul Razak included). My father was a barrister of Lincolns Inn so he was well connected to the who’s who of Malaysia at that time. But he chose the private sector to a career in government or politics.
My father was also anti-monarchy of sorts, at least as far as the Selangor Sultanate was concerned. In the 1960s he crossed swords with the Sultan of Selangor (the late Agong and father to the present Sultan) and was persona non grata in the Selangor Palace. One day he shocked my mother by saying that JKR (Jabatan Kerja Raya or the Public Works Department) is actually Jaga Konek Raja (taking care of the Sultan’s dick).
My mother chided him, while we kids, of course, had a good giggle. It seems my father’s anger was brought on by an incident that he viewed as the Sultan abusing his power. And the ‘abuse of power’ was with regards to the massive new palace that JKR built in Kelang at the expense of the taxpayers.
That was my father, for whatever it was worth.
One day my father came home all excited. And the reason for his excitement was because a new party called Gerakan had just been launched. As I said, my father was anti-politics so that was the first time we ever saw him excited about a political party. And my father’s excitement was because not only was Gerakan an opposition party but a multi-racial party on top of that.
Yes, my father believed that the future of Malaysia lay in a multi-racial party. And on 11 May 1969, my father, for the first time, went out to vote. And he voted opposition. And he openly declared that he voted opposition, much to my mother’s horror who told him to shush and not tell everyone he voted opposition.
My father died soon after, before he could see his dream shattered. Not long after my father died Gerakan joined Barisan Nasional. My father would have been devastated if he had lived long enough to see that happen.
Yes, my father was what we can label as a 'progressive' Malay, as most educated Malays of the 1950s and 1960s were. It was very common at that time to see elite Malay homes have bars stocked with the best whiskey, brandy and gin. That was how things were 50 years ago. But my father also pondered on how he could help the Malays. And he would never support a racist party. His heart was with multi-racial parties like Gerakan.
However, along the way, Gerakan lost its way. It became part of the monster that it was formed to oppose. It was because of Gerakan that my father came out of the closet and became political, the last couple of years before he died.
Today, Gerakan is still lost. It clings to Barisan Nasional and refuses to extricate itself from the monster that is bringing this country down. Gerakan just can’t see that its future is not with Barisan Nasional. The country’s future is not with Barisan Nasional.
And Gerakan is going to drown together with its ‘big brother’ Umno. And when that happens my father will finally rest easy in his grave. And for the sake of my father I must make sure that this will happen. And when it does I will be able to walk proud and tall and declare to the world that I am the son of Raja Kamarudin Bin Raja Sir Tun Uda -- the man who cared about the Malays and wanted to see a true-blue multi-racial Malaysia emerge.
Translated into Chinese at: http://ccliew.blogspot.com/2010/03/blog-post_14.html
written by capricorn, March 18, 2010 13:12:10
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written by NanoNano, March 15, 2010 11:24:39
Gerakan... remember this quote? The only thing necessary for evil to triumph over goodness is for good men to do nothing!
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written by OrangKaya, March 14, 2010 04:21:26
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written by JJFoo, March 13, 2010 15:41:25
MCA & GERAKAN are just empty shells, lowed themselves to the pathetic level of begging not to be discarded by enduring unendurable abuses and insults from their master.
They were expected to disregard any form of dignity and response favourably by justifying the abuses or insults dished out to them or remain silent. Even a mild form of protest will be replied with a severe whack in the face.
This serves to forewarn those who choose to share the same bed with the devils (UMNO). Prepared to be corrupted, used, sucked dry, reduced to a state of utter uselessness and be discarded.
On hindsight, many did so consciously, selfishly with only power and loose-change from UMNO on their mind.
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written by Better My, March 13, 2010 14:40:21
Guys, forget about Gerakan, MCA, MIC and all those BN racist parties. They are history. Let's all of us look forward with a tunnel vision towards GE13, vote those buggers out and vote in PR to Putrajaya. Agree? "
Agree with forty others as I write this.
Even if carrots are dangled in front of us by these historic had-been MCA/MIC parties, there will be few suckers except the uninformed. We know they are just illusions of the devastating kinds.
Whatever they do dont interest most of us, empowered by the knowledge of Malaysia situation today.
Writing this wasted 2 minutes of my time. I suggest to them to pack up and close shops.
We have stopped listerning to MCA/MIC && UMNO). Thrash ISA. For malaysia.
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written by mikewang, March 13, 2010 09:28:59
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written by alpha1, March 13, 2010 08:47:51
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written by fireduck, March 13, 2010 01:34:06
And for the sake of you and your father, we rakyat, will help make that happen!
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written by jokersland, March 13, 2010 00:17:55
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written by cheekhiaw, March 12, 2010 23:24:09
xxx
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written by storm62, March 12, 2010 22:38:46
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written by Angela Ooi, March 12, 2010 22:08:57
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written by Awang Hitam, March 12, 2010 21:56:53
Gerakan lost its way when the pakat with umno goons in 1969.
Now they taste the same medicine they gave to the Chinese 40 years ago!
Ha. Ha Ha
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written by hellosunshine, March 12, 2010 21:38:25
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written by truthbespoken, March 12, 2010 21:33:42
What's worse now, they have still not awaken from their deep political slumber! Most Malaysians already have! Gerakan is very much behind time! Perhaps, their "ever-UMNO-coat-tail-hanging" eunuch president has got to go first! He is a disgrace to enlightened Malaysians!
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written by lynn, March 12, 2010 21:32:43
You descended from the finest lineage this country has ever had. Hope your father is up above, looking out for you & your family. Gerakan is cheapskate, like an unwanted pross, still hanging around in bn looking to give blowjobs. After the manner the manner tore down his photo, koh tsu k can still hang around, it's amazing. Gerakan, you are history. Get used to it.
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written by Celestial, March 12, 2010 21:30:44
You already walk tall in many eyes, a true son of Raja Kamarudin and grandson of Raja Sir Tun Uda. A true blue blooded Malaysian if there ever was one. Hidup RPK. I am privileged to be called a friend.
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written by singhkris, March 12, 2010 21:01:42
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written by 4country, March 12, 2010 20:52:52
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written by AlwaysFair, March 12, 2010 20:37:44
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written by malsia1206, March 12, 2010 20:17:41
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written by Tompios, March 12, 2010 20:01:56
Gerakan has no 'gerakan' anymore! Tempat kecing2 oleh rakan-rakan yang lebih besar! Checkmate!!
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