Butt out of Sabah, Koh and Gerakan told
Sabah based parties are growing uncomfortable with Gerakan’s aggressive entry into the state’s politics and increasing demands for a more prominent status in the state BN political hierarchy.
(Free Malaysia Today) – Gerakan leader Koh Tsu Koon has been taken to task by a fellow Barisan Nasional coalition member for using Sabah to get the party back into the political mainstream after its humiliating eviction from Penang in the last election.
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) deputy president Senator Chin Su Phin said Koh has forgotten that Gerakan has not won an election in Sabah and its seats in the state legislature were obtained through defections and sweeteners offered to the assemblymen.
Sabah based parties are growing uncomfortable with Gerakan’s aggressive entry into the state’s politics and increasing demands for a more prominent status in the state BN political hierarchy.
Koh, the former Penang chief minister who himself lost his seat in the last general election in 2008 which saw his government fall to the opposition, has said that Gerakan’s revival will start in Sabah.
Chin said Koh should face the reality and not try to bring his beleageured party back to the mainstream of politics via the backdoor.
“Gerakan lost in their own soil in Penang, so it must stand up again from there in order to earn the trust and respect of the people.
“Perhaps Koh thinks that Gerakan now has three ‘imported’ assemblymen two of whom are full state ministers and therefore is hoping to be given the chance to contest the three seats,” he said.
“We want to tell Koh that his three assemblymen are ‘frogs’ who have not been tested yet, so one wonders what will happen if they are using Gerakan’s symbol.
“If they really want to prove that the people are with them, they should have quit from their government posts and just remain as assemblymen to serve the rakyat,” he added.
The three seats are Karamunting, Tg Papat and Elopura which are mixed-areas.
Unfair politics
Chin contended that if Gerakan thinks they can win in mixed-areas, then other BN component parties, a Sabah-based party like LDP in particular, will have no problem to deliver those seats.
He also compared fellow BN party MCA’s nominal status in the state to Gerakan.
“I would like to ask what worthy contribution has Gerakan made ever since it spread its wings to the state?” he asked, adding that in comparison, MCA has been in Sabah much longer and is more credible than Gerakan.
“But all this while, MCA has one elected assemblyman (and was) only given an assistant minister’s post, whereas Gerakan has three ‘frogs’ and with two full ministerial posts.
“This is unfair to other BN component partners,” he said.
Gerakan has become a force in state politics through the defections of Raymond Tan and Au Kam Wah from the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) last year and Peter Pang from LDP early this year.
