Too late for Gerakan to jump ship: Analyst


A political analyst says Gerakan missed a golden opportunity to quit Barisan Nasional in 2008 and it is now too late to do so as the opposition pact is a formidable force on its own.

Leven Woon, FMT

Gerakan missed a golden opportunity to quit the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) in 2008, when it was ridiculed and put-down by Umno post 2008 general election.

Penang-based political analyst Cheah See Kian said it was now too late for Gerakan to walk away from BN or become a third force as this would no longer help revive the party, which ruled Penang until the 2008 general election.

“When Umno leaders trampled on (then Gerakan president and ex-Penang Chief Minister) Dr Koh Tsu Koon’s portrait and told the party to quit BN (in 2008), they did not take up the challenge,”

“Now after the second electoral defeat at the 13th general election (in May, this year), they are left with no political capital,” he told FMT.

Cheah said the recent general election had made Pakatan Rakyat, the opposition coalition made up of PAS, DAP and PKR, a formidable force and strengthened the notion that the nation was heading for a two party system.

“Gerakan has no role to play in Pakatan Rakyat as the opposition coalition has won all the Gerakan contested seats.

“Even if Gerakan were to emulate the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) to form a third force, it won’t work. They are going to be wiped-out like what happened to SAPP,” he said.

Cheah, the former editor-in-chief of now defunct Sin Pin Daily, said Gerakan was now at crossroads and “I can’t see a way out for them.”

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