By Baradan Kuppusamy
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 — Gerakan is in deep despair as the party bravely soldiers on to find new purpose in life after its massive defeat in Election 2008 when it lost Penang, the crown jewel of the Barisan Nasional (BN) member.
But up to now, it has failed to reinvent itself, find a niche, or elect new and dynamic leaders to survive in a new age.
The issue is simple – after such a massive defeat, can Gerakan survive and find new purpose?
The consensus among influential political chat groups on the Internet and mainstream political commentators is to write-off Gerakan.
Some have already lowered Gerakan into the coffin, casting the party into political oblivion.
But Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, in a stirring speech at the Gerakan AGM yesterday, tried hard to raise the party's spirits.
He asked delegates whether they had the gumption to rise from defeat.
But stirring speech or not, there is little for Gerakan to look forward to with the Princeton-educated Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon heading the leadership and past luminaries like Dr Lim Kheng Yaik pushing from behind.
In a previous era, Gerakan was admired as the conscience of BN.
But that gentlemanly-period is over and has been replaced with hardball politics unfamiliar to Gerakan and its leaders.
Gerakan had started as an “intellectual” party offering an egalitarian, multi-cultural platform to Malaysians but was gradually co-opted into BN by the then-prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak.
In BN, Gerakan played a modest role as a critic and conscience of the coalition.
But as Umno’s excesses grew and the party openly flaunted its Ketuanan Melayu ideology, Gerakan chose to remain silent and gave up on its role as champions of equality and egalitarianism.
Eventually, the public interpreted Gerakan’s timidity as cowardice and started to looked to the DAP, which more stridently opposed Ketuanan Melayu policies.
On many issues, Gerakan shot itself by failing to draw a line and make its stand. It paid a heavy price for its failure and was nearly wiped out at the polls last year.
Currently Gerakan is not making much headway as an opposition party criticising the DAP-led Pakatan Rakyat government in Penang because while the DAP is ruling there, it has not given up on playing an “opposition role” in politics.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng continues to speak up against Umno, BN and the federal government on issues of larger public interest to Malaysians.
The DAP, in behaving like its own opposition, leaves little room for political parties like Gerakan or others to play the same role.
Under the circumstances, the more Gerakan tries to be an opposition party by attacking the DAP, the more it is seen by the public as “giving problems” to a “good” party.
Precluded from an opposition role, unable to adapt to a changed political landscape, and led by unimaginative old hands, Gerakan is lost in the political wilderness.
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Gerakan an intellectual party. Gosh. My goodness when is Gerakan intelletual. A PhD or 2 do not make Gerakan smart.
Gerakan has lost it marbles and Thing.