‘Raw deal’ for Gerakan Indians

The party's Indian members are upset that only one Indian has been chosen among the 17 constituency coordinators.

GEORGE TOWN: Gerakan Indian members are seeing red with the party leadership for giving them a “virtually zero deal” in Penang with regard to the next general election.

They claimed that the state leadership, now helmed by Dr Teng Hock Nan, “has played them out again.”

Businessman A Mohan was the only Indian among the 17 constituency coordinators appointed during a high-powered state meeting in late January. He was appointed as the Batu Kawan parliamentary constituency coordinator.

Teng had said the coordinators were the front-liners for candidacy in the next election.

FMT learnt that the state committee had omitted vocal lawyer, Baljit Singh, from the candidature list to make way for Rowena Yam, who is said to be Teng’s crony, for the Pulau Tikus state constituency.

Baljit was among the 25 hopefuls who attended a special interview session last December conducted by an ad-hoc committee.

Despite being a favourite to land Pulau Tikus, a party insider alleged that Teng, with tacit backing from party president Koh Tsu Koon, left out Baljit because the lawyer was not in the good books of the party top brass.

Sources claimed that even Mohan’s position was not sealed. They speculated that he would be substituted by the constituency division chairman Ng Siew Lai in the last minute. Ng is also closely aligned to Teng.

A Gerakan Indian member from Seberang Perai claimed that while Indians form some 30% of Penang Gerakan’s 63,000 members, their representation had never been proportionate be it within or outside the party.

“Gerakan only wants qualified Indians as political mandores and decoration for its so-called multi racial facet. Grassroots Indian members are used only to wave party flags, put up banners, streamers and glue posters,” said the vexed member.

This was not the first time Gerakan had slapped Indian members with such a raw deal.

Under the previous state leadership of former chief minister Dr Koh Tsu Koon, Gerakan had only nominated one Indian candidate in Penang – Rhina Bhar for the Jelutong parliamentary seat in 1995.

Comparing the party with rivals DAP, Gerakan’s Indian members argued that the Chinese-dominated DAP fielded Indians in two federal and four state seats in 2008, while Gerakan had none.

Stringent vetting system

However, Chin Fook Weng, who heads the ad hoc committee, said the lack of Indian participation was a result of a stringent candidate vetting system based on political skills not skin-colour.

Chin’s five-man ad-hoc committee, formed by the party central working committee (CWC), sources and develops potential political leadership talents and candidates to fill up various positions offered to Gerakan within the Barisan Nasional sphere.

He said the party chose candidates based on various merits including political skills, abilities, experience, desires, public rapport, activeness within the party and community work, and most importantly, winning credentials.

“We can’t afford to pick a candidate based on skin colour especially when Gerakan is keen to advocate multi-racial politics and meritocracy,” he explained.

However, he admitted that shortage of Indian political talent had been among the major failures of Gerakan, despite controlling the Penang government for 39 years.

“It has always been the party’s Achilles heel,” he said.

Gerakan was wiped out in all four federal and 13 state seats, allotted under the BN electoral formula, in Penang in the last election. - FMT