Can Mah Rejuvenate Gerakan?
With Datuk Mah's election as party president as well as the new central committee in place, it looks like the Penang influence over the party's central leadership is almost gone. Datuk Mah is from Perak, while his new deputy president and running mate, Dr Cheah Soon Hai is from Kedah.
The very typical question here is, will Datuk Mah and his team, clearly backed by the party elders, be able to step out of the shadows of the party veterans who had earlier groomed and campaigned tirelessly for him for the party presidency?
Will Datuk Mah and Dr Cheah be able to stand on their own politically in Gerakan and BN as well? Are they ready to take on a critical role in the BN in ensuring their voices in the coalition are being heard of. Are they ready to fight the various extremists and racist characteristics in the BN coalition itself and will they be effective in ensuring that Gerakan's non-racial approach would be a fore-front ideology of the BN? If otherwise, are both Datuk Mah and Dr Cheah ready to bring Gerakan out of BN if they fail to convince the dominant coalition leaders of the relevance of Gerakan's ideology to BN?
Yes, Datuk Mah is an experience parliamentarian, a former deputy minister and has other exposure in the establishment prior to his new Gerakan position. He has a proven track record as an administrator not a leader of the party. On the other hand Dr Cheah who is currently the Kedah Gerakan chairman was a state assemblyman and had never been active in the central party politics before and he is in fact seen to be more in regional leader rather than a national-type. Maybe he will re-tune his role after being elected to the party's number two position.
With the election of the new group of leaders to helm Gerakan, the party would have at least four years to bring itself back on its feet again to face the 14th general elections. The party delegates had made their decisions to put Mah and his team on the top of the central leadership based on the fact that there are no other stronger alternatives.
The delegates can't elect the Penang chief Teng Chang Yeow to helm the party's top level as they had seen the way he handled the state BN in the last general elections, his double defeats (in both GE12 and GE13)) and his own uncertainties as well as how he had eventually given up hope after his second defeat in 5 May 2013 (resigning as Gerakan secretary-general and Penang BN chairman, then disappeared from the political scene for some time).
The question of whether Datuk Mah and his new team can rejuvenate Gerakan by continue staying in the BN is still a question mark. In the recent Umno party elections, most of the right wing, racist and tainted leaders are either elected or re-elected to their respective positions. On the other hand, the rising tensions in issues related to religious and racial matters has not subsided. The way Umno and the BN government handle such sensitive issues are not being welcomed by the people due to the fact that it demonstrates a clear injustice over the treatment of the minorities at large.
How will Datuk Mah and his new team going to handle such are still questionable. Datuk Mah must realize that he cannot use the Dr Koh's words of "close door discussions" anymore as the people has became fed up of such words. There is no such thing of "close door discussions" anymore in the BN as even Umno itself does not respect such in the BN anymore and choose to instead condemn its coalition partners openly for not being in tune with Umno in many policies and issues.
Will the "new" Gerakan be able to break ranks from within the coalition (BN) in order to ensure its views are being heard and respected by the dominant forces of the BN? Can the "new" Gerakan become a force to be reckoned with to fight off the race-based political parties in the coalition who are still dominating the policy-making in this nation?
Datuk Mah will have to prove Gerakan and his own worth, as well as to let us know that our doubts are wrong after all. He should start showing us something by today.
