Gerakan withdraws from BN

Should Gerakan, a member of the Barisan Nasional withdraws from the coalition?

This question has been playing in the mind of Gerakan members and the public since the 308 General Election. As junior partner of BN, many felt Gerakan has not been treated fairly especially by the dominant partner Umno. The general feeling is that Gerakan's is just playing a minor role in BN and after the lost of the Penang Government, there is nothing much left for Gerakan to stay on in BN. Furthermore, it will be more a liablity to them if Umno maintains its racialistic and Malay domination policies.

For more than 30 years Gerakan has been sleeping with Umno in the same BN room, not on the same bed but on the floor. Should Gerakan demands a bed of its own or just shift out from the room. If it does shift out, will it be sharing the room with Pakatan Rakyat or prefers to have a room of its own, meaning to be an independent "third force" in Malaysian politics.

The Perak Gerakan delegates already starts the ball rolling today by adopting a resolution calling for the withdrawal of the party from BN. This is not a small matter as Perak is the second largest stronghold of Gerakan after Penang. Furthermore this is the state of former president Lim Keng Yaik. The current state chairman Chang Ko Youn is also a national vice president and possibly the next deputy president of Gerakan.

The Gerakan leaders need to do the necessary to keep the party relevant to the people. If it makes the wrong move, the party will be relegated to just a footnote in the political history of Malaysia.- Loka