Gerakan unmoved: A stale and static tale

FEBRUARY 23 — Football fans know about living in the past and they should share their vast array of coping mechanisms with Gerakan President Dominic Lau. Something should fit his party’s palliative care.

After all, Gerakan has made no electoral stride in the last 15 years for the reactionary party formed in 1969 is in limbo. If anything, the party has shrunk to insignificance.

He inherited the unenviable position of leading a party with little future and the only upside being owner of a tall and imposing twin-tower complex in downtown Cheras, next to both MRT and LRT stations. The rental business should be good post-pandemic, the vote business not so.

In case it is hard to keep track of the party’s scorecard, Gerakan lost every race everywhere on November 19, 2022. Lost them badly, and no silver lining anywhere.

There must be a Scout’s badge for the eager beaver who takes one beating after another and still shows up without a game plan with another smacking guaranteed.

But that’s Gerakan, here to buy a lottery ticket two days after the draw.

How did it get to this? Most of it is self-inflicted.

Action-packed start, followed by long-time of inaction

The quick success to win Penang in 1969 was both a gift and a curse. Quick success meant it never built its base over time.

A year-old Gerakan formed by a collection of experienced politicians beat Alliance (Barisan Nasional’s precursor) and former MCA president Lim Chong Eu became the party’s first chief minister.

He chose stability through co-operation with the federal government which meant joining the new BN mechanism as a component party, subservient to Kuala Lumpur as long as Gerakan had a free hand to run Penang.

That is the long and short of it. Gerakan opted for stable — even if staid — power over the opportunity to grow their ideological ambitions domestically. As such, it became the second Chinese party inside BN peninsula-wide with seniority in Penang.

And as demographic shifts proceeded, Umno and MCA asked for more power and the chief minister position based on their seat count in the BN majority. DAP was present and threatened to win but the electorate math was set against them.

Even in its last joyful election, GE2004, Gerakan was potent — holding 13 of BN’s 38 seats in Penang.

In those flat years, Gerakan was complacent and happy to have some presence in the other states. Present but without gravitas in the national game.

President Lim Keng Yaik — another MCA reject — as Perak’s Beruas MP and Alex Lee — MCA founder HS Lee’s son — the MP for Kuala Lumpur’s Batu.

Gerakan was content to be a Chinese-led and dominated party.

It slid even further when Lim Chong Eu was forced out as Penang chief minister in 1990.

It was evident Gerakan was not ambitious and keen to stay in power even if as supporting cast. It still had Penang.

In 2008, that reality shattered. Not only did they lose Penang to DAP, they lost every race. Gerakan, after almost 40 years on top in the state, disappeared completely in one election. They’ve never returned.

If rejected at its base, what should the party do?

Well not what it did belatedly, almost unthinkingly in 2018. After BN lost federal power, Gerakan left the coalition a month later. Was it because BN failed the Malaysian people, or BN failed the core values of Gerakan?

It was never clear, nothing has been clear about Gerakan in the past 20 years, at least.

When Gerakan cosied up to Perikatan Nasional (PN) in September 2020, the whole episode reeked of desperation.

Why did PN need seatless Gerakan? The Chinese-ruled party gave the appearance of multiculturalism to the overly racial Bersatu-PAS who shared the throne. At the time, Gerakan was a useful ally.

But things got ominous when BN dislodged PN as leader of the grouping in 2021, and Ismail Sabri not Muhyiddin Yassin led the government.

The party put its faith in PN, but now BN not PN was the master. After its dramatic departure from BN, the party now had to be an even more bit player as part of PN looking up to BN.

Gerakan president Datuk Dominic Lau Hoe Chai speaks to reporters during the interview at Gerakan National Headquarters PGRM tower in Kuala Lumpur September 6, 2022. — Picture by Hari Anggara

The clock was on in the second half of 2022. It had to choose quickly as PN and BN headed for a showdown. Gerakan stuck with PN, and unsurprisingly lucked out at the general election.

It’s been almost four months out of power for Gerakan and all signs indicate this is a lengthy winter.

Who will Gerakan quit on now?

A battle in June

PN sets course for six state elections in the middle of the year. It is confident to secure Kedah, Terengganu and Kelantan, and make a fist of it in Penang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan.

There is optimism inside PN. But Gerakan may not luxuriate from the expected dark blue wave’s might. It simply lacks appeal on its own. That is a horrible predicament for a political party, a business where votes dominate.

The liberal party, seemingly a misplaced jigsaw piece from a different puzzle, stuck with Bersatu-PAS with the power relationship one way.

That’s why it is likely to suffer in the PN type-states, and certainly more in the Pakatan type-states of Penang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan.

If Gerakan emerges from the state elections without a win, what will it do? There is only an outside chance it can win in an urban seat like Kedah’s Derga or Kelantan’s Kota Lama. But only if PAS takes pity and hands a bone to Gerakan, its partner.

But Bersatu and PAS may not be as charitable to Gerakan as they face the tandem of BN and Pakatan Harapan. Both coalitions agree the way forward is to defeat PN first.

If both coalitions’ support bases overcome their disdain for co-operation, PN will have stiff contests even in its strongholds. Such developments will only side-line weaker Gerakan inside PN.

It’s about winning

This column postulates Gerakan’s steady decline began a long time before 2008. It just lived off demography and BN’s structure through the years.

In doing so, it eschewed principle and ideology — and when necessary reminded people of 1969 to ride nostalgia.

How does it reconcile its membership to Liberal International while in cahoots with PAS which feels the road to hell is paved with liberal wishes?

How does it uphold its “objective of a united, secular and socially just Malaysia” when subservient to Bersatu which does not even allow equal membership for all Malaysians?

The caveat appears Gerakan is comfortable to be flexible to be relevant. Perhaps Gerakan’s error over the decades under BN and then to PN is that it mistakes existence as relevance.

Passion is risk

In secondary school, I visited Gerakan’s founder and former leader of opposition Dr Tan Chee Koon’s home. To interview him for the school museum.

How would he decipher the infuriating present? Dr Tan left Gerakan when it decided to gang up with BN in 1972, so the safe bet would be he’d prefer a spine over success.

Last month, Gerakan extended an invite to former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin after his expulsion from Umno. The ex-minister chose elegant silence to this pitch.

Fortunately, Gerakan has massive experience in being ignored. Voters have consistently done so for 15 years without them bothered much about the rejection.

However, the party must come around to the idea that at one point, the slew of rejections and defeats will add up and then its situation turns terminal.

The column up to this juncture has avoided the suggestion of a solution for Gerakan. A solution is hard to come by but Gerakan has no one else to blame.

The party made its own bed when it comes to an audit. At a cursory glance, it does appear the end is nigh for the party, unless and only if PN gets too strong and returns to Putrajaya. Muhyiddin, not Lau, has to come to the party’s rescue. It all looks too fanciful right now.

*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.