The relevance of Gerakan
Former Gerakan members are not so convinced about the party’s bearing. Datuk Dominic J Puthucheary, for example, says the party has no power and influence at all. The former Member of Parliament for Nibong Tebal argues that Gerakan is only relevant because it is a party within the BN.
By Koh Lay Chin, the Nut Graph
THE words come often, and ruthlessly so: Irrelevant. A waste of time. A joke.
These are currently used to describe Gerakan, and its members know it. Once, it claimed its place as the “Voice of Reason” within the Barisan Nasional (BN). But since the 2008 general election, the party has seen its fortunes and influence so battered, naysayers say they no longer have a voice at all.
Has Gerakan truly become irrelevant, and are these its dying days?
Fallen angels unite
Gerakan members acknowledge the sense of loss within the party and the contempt frequently hurled at it. But they maintain that calling it a dying party is unreasonable.
“You must understand the Gerakan grassroots. When they are being crushed and attacked, they become more united. Fallen angels stick together,” Dr Asharuddin Ahmad, head of Gerakan’s unity bureau, says in a phone interview.
He is not the only one using war-like quotes that seem to demonstrate that there are those in Gerakan who are not ready to bury their 41-year-old party.
Ng Yeen Seen, deputy director-general of Gerakan think-tank Sedar Institute, said party members are in the midst of “training to fight in the next competition”, referring to the next general election which must be held by 2013.
“How do you measure relevance? Is it your picture on the front page, news of you fighting within your party, issuing press statements, or is it doing your work diligently on the ground, [carrying out your] duties within your capabilities? What exactly is the benchmark in Malaysia, especially in politics?” she asks.
Ng (Courtesy of Ng Yeen Seen)
Ng admits that the morale and motivation within the party is lower than before. But, she says, this is understandable, considering the party’s heavy losses in the last general election. The party went from 10 to just two parliamentary seats in 2008. More importantly, it lost its crown jewel: Penang. It thus lost its only cabinet post, although Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak threw the party a lifeline by appointing party president Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon as minister in charge of ministerial and administrative performance.
A façade?
Former Gerakan members are not so convinced about the party’s bearing. Datuk Dominic J Puthucheary, for example, says the party has no power and influence at all. The former Member of Parliament for Nibong Tebal argues that Gerakan is only relevant because it is a party within the BN.
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