KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 (Bernama) -- Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, which concluded its all-important three-day national delegates conference on Sunday, has charted its resurrection with president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon outlining eight main strategies to revive the party that once helmed the Penang state government.
The party, one of the few multi-racial components in the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, wants to apply the "Malaysian perspective and non-racial approach" in analysing major national issues, be more vocal in raising issues, rebuild and strengthen the party, actively reach out to the civil society, and activate and motivate party members, among other things.
It also wants to recruit more Malaysians from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds, boost the morale of its leaders, re-energise and revamp the party structure, and improve its public relations.
The strategies look good on paper but how the party will carry out these strategies and programmes remains to be seen, especially that initiative on attracting more non-Chinese into the predominantly Chinese party.
It is to be noted that at the election of national office bearers for 2008-2011 at the delegates conference yesterday, only three non-Chinese candidates made the cut for the 23 positions to be filled.
The three are Datuk Dr S. Vijayaratnam (vice-president), A. Kohilan Pillay and little-known Jayanthi Devi Balaguru, a lawyer, (both central committee).
Vijayaratnam is an old guard while Kohilan, the deputy minister of plantation industries and commodities, is considered a rising star, especially after he won the Selangor Gerakan chief post three weeks ago.
Even more alarming is the lack of Malay representation in the party mainstream, especially with the party now wanting to attract more Malays to reflect a multi-racial picture to the rakyat (people).
Dr Asharuddin Ahmad, the sole Malay candidate for one of the three posts of vice-president, lost narrowly, coming in fourth and missing the third spot by a mere 31 votes.
Nevertheless, speculation is strong in party circles that Dr Asharuddin would be appointed by Dr Koh to the party central committee. The president can appoint five central committee members to add to the elected 18.
Some party diehards argue that the lack of non-Chinese was due to the fact that though the 400,000-member party wants to include non-Chinese in the national leadership, they (non-Chinese) were not forthcoming to active politics.
"They prefer to stay behind the scenes. They are happy just being members. We are not questioning their commitment or dedication but the non-Chinese in Gerakan just don't want to be in the mainstream," said a Gerakan leader who declined to be named.
But the issue is not confined to the national leadership line-up. At the party's Youth and Wanita elections on Friday, only four non-Chinese were picked to be in the national leadership of the two wings.
The entire Youth line-up only consists of one non-Chinese, A. Kuhan, who won a seat in the Youth central committee. Again, there was no Malay representation.
The situation in the Wanita wing was slightly better. There were three non-Chinese in the line-up, with Azmar Md Ilias (Wanita vice-president), Jayanthi Devi and A. Paramissury (in the Wanita central committee).
With this line-up at the national, Youth and Wanita levels, one wonders how the party can regain the support of Malaysians of all races and be a truly multi-racial political party that it wants to be.
This is bearing in mind that the party suffered one of its worst ever general election defeats at the March 8 polls. It lost almost all the seats it contested. It also lost its grip on the Penang state government, which it had helmed since the 1970s.
Matters got worse when some groups in the party wanted it to pull out of the BN to either join the opposition or become an "independent" political force. If this were to happen, things would look bleak for the party as it would have to weather the political storm on its own.
Joining the opposition would mean working together with those whom it had criticised in the past while standing alone as an "independent" party would possibly spell the end of the party, as seen from past examples.
An independent Gerakan would also mean that it would have to contest elections on its own, meaning it would not have the advantage of the BN election machinery.
To put it in the words of Dr Koh in his opening address at the delegates conference: "Gerakan is on the threshold of change, not just at a crossroad."
-- BERNAMA
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