Gerakan should leave BN, instead of telling racist BN leaders to leave

Barisan Nasional (BN) should not accommodate leaders who are racists and against the spirit of 1Malaysia, Gerakan vice president Datuk Mah Siew Keong said recently.

Datuk Mah was responding to the chorus of dissatisfaction from the party’s delegates against such leaders in BN, which they believe was detrimental to efforts in regaining support from the non-Malay communities.

First of all, does Gerakan has that particular strength to push or to pressure those racist BN leaders to leave the coalition. The real problem here is, most of the racist BN leaders are from Umno itself. Right now, Umno is one particular dominant and powerful component part in the coalition which also consist MCA, MIC, PPP, SUPP, PBB, UPKO, LDP, PBS, PBRS and PRS. SAPP had earlier left the coalition citing dissatisfaction over the neglect of the Sabah state by Umno and BN.

Gerakan had lost mostly all of its parliamentary and state seats contested in the last general election. The party president himself had lost the parliamentary seat he contested in Penang and appointed a Senator a year later in order for him to join the cabinet.

So Gerakan, do you have the said influence and strength to push for your Bangsa Malaysia concept to be implemented from within the BN coalition? It is understood that the Umno president and prime minister Datuk Najib Razak had previously said that Bangsa Malaysia was not part of the concept within the BN itself.

Then Datuk Najib himself started 1Malaysia, but none of his party leaders fully agree with the said concept citing their fear over the lost of the so-called Bumiputra rights should the 1Malaysia concept is fully mobilized

Even when an Umno division chairman in Penang uttered racist and insulting statements on the Malaysian Chinese community, all Gerakan could do is to call for the suspension of the said Umno leader, and they got it. The Umno division chairman was suspended for a mere three years but his membership was reinstate a year later, where he was welcomed back as a "race hero" by his supporters.

So what can Gerakan actually do? Are your efforts a success or effective? Even when the Penang Umno state liaison chief had recently said that they wanted to take away all your seats which you had contested and lost in the last general elections. And you just can't do anything at all.

The Penang Umno state liaison chief is still around trying to stir up racial tensions within the BN coalition and Gerakan still cannot do anything just because all those Umno leaders are too powerful to be touched by anyone.

Actually, in the BN coalition itself, there are no real unity in term of multiracial concept at all. Umno with its Malay unity, MCA about Chinese unity, MIC talks about Indian unity, UPKO speaks on Kadazan unity and PBB calls for Melanau unity. In BN there is no one word at all and the situation in the coalition is in a mess, to be truth.

In the BN coalition, Gerakan is all alone when it talks about Bangsa Malaysia or Anak Malaysia, while PPP is rather uncertain of its political directions and future. The BN subject until today is still race-based.

To Gerakan, we are not certain if the party is going to have its concepts achieved as we see that most of the major component parties in the BN coalition are still not Malaysian enough to support your stand and belief.

To us, you may as well leave the BN coalition and promote your multiracial concepts outside the said conservative structure. Just look at SAPP in Sabah, they are on their own right now, because of the BN's failure to address most of the problems in that state.

But if Gerakan choose to continue to work out its concepts from within or should we say you wanted to retain your ministerial and deputy ministerial positions for the sake of "power" instead of listening to the people, then we have nothing more to say.

The future is in your hand.