Gerakan president faces revolt, party in decline

Gerakan president Dr Koh Tsu Koon is facing the worst ever revolt not only from within the party but from outside as well, all sides.

After being summarily defeated in the last general election on 2008, the embattled Gerakan leader choose to hold on to his position and vowed to strive on to move Gerakan into a new chapter with promises of reform and rejuvenation from within the party as well to bring in the young generation to make up the new leadership line-up.

Two years had gone and all those pledges and promises of change and reform were forgotten just like that. Members of the younger generations in the party began to sense the ineffectiveness of the Gerakan presidency in Dr Koh and started to sound their displeasure over the way he leads the party into.

However, those grievances when into deaf ears as the present set of leadership still remain under the grip of the conservatives faction which includes Dr Koh himself. Whoever sound their displeasure on the party leadership were systematically silenced and purged.

We could see that for the past two years. So many prominent party leaders had resigned and eventually left the party. We do not have to name them, as everyone knew what had happened then.

Penang Gerakan is now experiencing an open revolt to topple its state chairman Dr Teng Hock Nan, a Dr Koh's ally. Inside source had also indicated that state Gerakan leaders in Perak, Selangor, Johor, Pahang, Negri Sembilan and Melaka are also expected to face the similar revolt but all these would depend on the outcome in the Penang's party upcoming EGM, a trial one, we supposed.

Even the Gerakan advisor Dr Lim Keng Yaik had by now expressed his regret of anointing Dr Koh as his successor citing that he had no other choice at that time. Yeah we could still remember during that time, where Dr Lim choose to side Dr Koh instead of the combatant type Dr Goh Cheng Teik during the intense contest for the Gerakan's Penang state chairmanship.

Actually Dr Lim did have another choice at that time but he made a mistake by anointing Dr Koh instead of Dr Goh. So, it is also wrong for Dr Lim to blame Dr Koh entirely, as Dr Lim should also take the blame on himself too for his wrong choice which had also caused the party to lose the entire Penang state to Pakatan Rakyat in the last general election.

Regretting now and cry foul of the current leadership are already too late. Admit it, Dr Lim and Dr Koh had both made their mistakes and people had already abandoned Gerakan for Pakatan Rakyat's DAP, PKR and PAS.

Gerakan is bleeding and will bleed dry unless the party is willing to get rid of all her old sets of conservative leaders and bring in the young ones to refresh the party. But are the present old party leaders willing to voluntarily step aside to make way for the young ones to come up?

No dynastic succession please, if you really want to talk about reform, rejuvenation or even about re-branding.

Another move that Gerakan ought to think is, are they able to give up their overly dependence on the Barisan Nasional coalition, particularly "kow towing" and bowing to Umno style? Are they able to bravely move forward by leaving the BN coalition and strive on its own in order to prove its self-reliance and relevance?

Are they brave enough to leave all those ministerial and deputy ministerial posts behind to go back to the streets to be with the people and to start of from scratch again? This is how you gained your respect during the 1968 era, remember? We supposed you all had totally forgotten about your humble beginnings since you joined the BN coalition.

However, despite all our thoughts and opinions on this party and its future, we could see no signs of any of its party leaders readying to step out of the BN shell of denial mode to begin from the bottom again. As at now, none of them are willing to make that sacrifices to rebuild the party from scratch but choose to continue fighting in politics of "in between" by only picking onto daily ad-hoc issues and joining the conflicts of others.

If Gerakan continues to be in this situation, the party would risk another total defeat come next general election to be reduced into cold storage perhaps. Think about it then!