The Gerakan president is confident his party will score a breakthrough in Penang in the next GE.

IN the 2013 general election, Barisan National ironically failed to capture some constituencies where members of its component parties totalled more than 50% of the voters.

But Gerakan president Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong believes this incongruous phenomenon might not be repeated in the coming general election (GE14).

Gerakan is a Barisan component party that was almost wiped out in the last two general elections. In 2008 and 2013, it lost control of its fortress Penang, the state it had ruled for 39 years from 1969 to 2008, to the DAP.

“There are less inter-party and intra-party conflicts currently. Unlike previously, the MCA and Gerakan can work together now. The inter-party relations of parties have improved,” says Mah, 56, in an interview.

Without reservations, he says: “Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai (MCA president) and I have cooperated closely on many major issues. He has shown good leadership by getting us (Gerakan), MIC, SUPP, etc for discussions to come out with ideas whenever there is a need to do so.”

One example of MCA and Gerakan working together is seen in their joint opposition to the hudud Bill tabled by PAS in Parliament last year.

Indeed, the Chinese community was delighted to see MCA and Gerakan – two Chinese-based parties – working together for the good of the community and nation.

Set up in 1968, this multi-racial party used to be very powerful under the leadership of Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu and Tun Dr Lim Keng Yaik. In the 2004 general election, Gerakan scored its best electoral result by winning 10 parliamentary and 30 state seats.

Source:
courtesy of THE STAR

by Ho Wah Foon

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