Gerakan must pullout now from BN

TAIPING: Gerakan leaders must pull the party out of the Barisan Nasional coalition and form a third front if it is to be relevant in the 14th general election.

In making the call former Gerakan national youth vice chief S Paranjothy, also urged party leaders to stop playing second fiddle to Umno’s divide and rule policy.

He said the current “dead-wood” party leaders were nothing more than “yes-men” to Umno and must be replaced with a new mindset.

Paranjothi said it was vital now for the party to enage new young dynamic leaders who can guide the political direction for “a the nation for all Malaysians”, which he added was what the younger generation had advocated in the recently concluded polls.

“Stop being subservient to Umno and walk out from BN to regain our lost party pride otherwise we will become permanently irrelevant.

“The present leaders are only being `yes men’ to Umno’s racist policies to safeguard their own personal interests instead of looking after the welfare of the party and its members,” said Paranjothi.

He said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak must also stop selecting BN candidates who have “lost in the general elections as senators and make them backdoor ministers and deputy ministers.”

“Where is the political pride of BN in selecting such political rejects which will only anger the voters further and move them closer to the opposition.

“There is a wide talent of good leaders with quality merits who can be selected for the posts instead of those who have been rejected by the voters,” opined the Gerakan leader who is also the party’s Taman Ehsan branch chief.

Paranjothi said it was obvious that the party leadership had not learned from the 2008 political tsunami but had instead clung on to the old mindset that had greatly diverted from the original political path set by the party founders in March 1968.

Gerakan can be relevant

He argued that racist parties such as MCA and MIC are a dying breed in the present political scenario but Gerakan being a multi-racial party could reform itself to form the third front to attract all the younger generations.

He urged the new crop of party leaders to listen to the voice of the grassroot members and get the necessary input to revitalize the party and take it to greater heights.

Paranjothy claimed that he represented the voice of the majority of party members when he also called for the resignation of Gerakan deputy president Chang Koh Yon.

Party chief Dr Koh Tsu Koon and secretary general Teng Chang Yeow had recently announced their resignation from all posts.

“Why does Chang want to cling on to his national deputy post when Dr Koh and Teng had the courage to resign from their political posts?” he asked.

He said Gerakan must follow the trend set by MCA in not allowing its members to hold any government posts in both federal and national level after the Chinese based party suffered its worst election defect in the May 5 polls.

MCA only won seven out of 37 parliamentary and 11 out of the 90 state seats that it had contested, and was wiped out in Penang and Selangor.

While Gerakan also suffered a similar political fate when it only won one parliamentary out of the 11 seats and three state seats out of the 31 seats that it had contested.

The party had won the Simpang Renggam parliamentary seat while winning the three state seats of Sidam in Kedah, Pemanis in Johor and Tanjong Papat in Sabah.

He claimed that the reason for Gerakan’s defeat in the 13th general election was because  the party leadership had failed to listen to the grassroots in selecting suitable candidates and had instead chosen to parachute cronies.