The Gerakan leadership remains bewildered

OVER a year ago, Gerakan joined Perikatan Nasional as the fifth component party after Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, PAS, Sabah People’s Progressive Party, better known as SAPP, and Sabah STAR.

The individual most enthralled by this alliance must be Gerakan’s president, Dr Dominic Lau, because he is now a senator.

However, party members were excited as well because Gerakan was to be part of the governing coalition and the "sweets" that came with it.

After three years in the political wilderness, Gerakan’s decision to join Perikatan was welcomed internally.

After the humiliating defeat in the Tanjung Piai by-election in 2019, most Gerakan members realised the party could not go it alone.

I was forceful in my view, and shared amongst like-minded party colleagues that Gerakan risks continued irrelevance if it did not do a mid-course correction.

However, many of us were disappointed that the party threw itself into the political gyrations that culminated in the “Sheraton Move” in February 2020 to generate salacious headlines.

Gerakan was only accepted into the Perikatan fold a whole year later despite all the humdrum.

I harken back to the fateful decision to leave Barisan Nasional after the 2018 General Election.

I have often said that the decision to quit Barisan was a strategic blunder.

Gerakan’s decision to leave Barisan was twofold. One, the internal assessment was that Barisan was as good as gone and two, party leaders felt a need to purge themselves of the failures associated with Barisan.

On both accounts, I argued to the contrary that Gerakan must stick with its friends in Barisan and take moral and political responsibility for the general election loss and fix itself up.

Ironically, many in Gerakan who spearheaded the push for the party to leave Barisan are now kicking themselves after Barisan recorded impressive wins in the recent state elections in Melaka and Johor.

I am told Gerakan tried to rejoin Barisan before its outreach to Perikatan; however, that request was rebuffed.

Gerakan's current leadership comprises many first-timers – the president, deputy presidents, vice-presidents, secretary-general, and treasurer are holding their posts for the first time.

In the last party election, almost all the incumbent office bearers decided to call it a day, resulting in a massive vacuum in the party’s leadership ranks.

The current leadership wanted to chart a new course and consolidate its hold on the party, so it took a giant axe to cleave off anyone who they presumed to be against them – I know this first hand. This is the nature of politics, and one must be ready to accept it.

However, attempts were made by some party leaders to reach out to members critical of them, but nothing much came of it.

But politics is also a cutthroat business, and there is no room for error. Party leaders cannot say they are novices and expect to be forgiven for their mistakes. It does not work that way.

Back to the decision to join Perikatan, I was not opposed to it. I thought to myself, what could go wrong after the Tanjung Piai debacle.

However, a year later, and with two state elections in tow, Gerakan has not been able to recoup lost support, casting doubt on the party leadership’s promise to gain new support, like the Blue-Ocean strategy.

Second, Perikatan remains predominantly a bumiputra outfit and lacks popular legitimacy with non-bumiputras, as the Johor and Melaka state elections show.

Third, Gerakan has struggled to be the bridge for Bersatu and PAS’ outreach to the non-bumiputra/non-Muslim communities.

In this column last year, I remarked that if Gerakan is to ensure the success of its membership of Perikatan, it will have to do several things to get its groove back.

I posited that Gerakan must reaffirm its commitment to its non-racial struggle, challenge DAP, mend fences with MCA and give younger party leaders a step up.

A year later, what has happened?

Gerakan has spent the last year trying to "out-Chinese" DAP and MCA. I am told most party meetings are done in Mandarin, save for a few states like Selangor, Kedah, and Kelantan.

Gerakan has refused to speak up on important issues concerning non-Muslims for fear of offending Perikatan partners.

It begs the question, why leave Umno’s purported hegemony for that of another party?

Furthermore, party leaders also saw fit to defend the decision of the Kedah state government to restrict 4D shops.

Gerakan has continued to antagonise MCA and Barisan. I was also disturbed by the rhetoric employed by some party leaders in the Johor state election.

These party leaders were screaming and shouting about "court clusters" and celebrating Barisan’s defeat in the 2018 General Election forgetting that some of them stood on a Barisan ticket in the same election.

As far as younger leaders are concerned, this seems to be the only part the party has done right as it fielded young candidates in Melaka and Johor state elections, but many of these candidates’ lacked depth and performed poorly.

Gerakan’s challenge is best illustrated by the defence mounted by some party leaders against criticism of its performance in the Melaka and Johor state elections. The constant refrain is "at least we kept our deposit in some seats." I find it tragic.

It is distressing that the party leadership remains bewildered and unable to do anything besides striving to retain deposits in elections.