Paying the price for subservience to Umno
This article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 30th August 2013 MCA, Gerakan and PPP suffered humiliating defeats in the last two general elections, and their leaders know the cause: their subservience to Umno, the “big brother” in the Barisan Nasional. They may blame their defeat on the opposition parties for allegedly spreading lies about them, but it will not change the reality. In the 12th general election in 2008, MCA, Gerakan and PPP took a heavy drubbing: Gerakan lost the Penang state to the opposition Pakatan Rakyat, with all its state assemblymen wiped out. In the 13th general election, the three BN parties fared even worse. MCA managed to secure only seven parliamentary seats, down from 15 in the previous election. Gerakan is left with only one seat while PPP did not win a single parliamentary or state seat. The leaders of these three major BN partners know that their ties with Umno were the biggest drawback in the electoral battles. They know ...