Why Gerakan failed

GEORGE TOWN: A founding member of Gerakan claimed that the party was led astray when it began admitting members from the Chinese educational lobbyist groups.
The minute such groups assumed the leadership mantle in Gerakan, the party lost its multi - ethnic identity and evolved into becoming a Chinese-centric entity, said Datuk K. Koris Atan, a consumer activist.
Koris who quit Gerakan a few years ago, said that he was heartbroken that Gerakan is now a pale shadow of itself after reigning over Penang from 1969 until 2008.
The party is now without any seats for the first time in 49-years.
"During the last three decades, it cannot be denied that Gerakan was behind the impressive growth of Penang. But it changed due to its membership content of becoming influenced by the Chinese educational agenda."
By principle, it was only MCA who was supposed to champion the rights and plight of the Chinese community, said Koris in an interview.
He said that he has nothing personal against the Chinese educational groups, but stressed that Gerakan was supposed to be a multi-ethnic party.
So logically, the party should have an even footing in terms of having Malay, Chinese and Indian members, but Gerakan became Chinese-driven; making it difficult to reinvent themselves in this present era of diversity.
Koris said that Gerakan made mistakes by admitting leaders from MCA and MIC, who instead of strengthening the party, brought down Gerakan with their race - based agenda.
Gerakan veteran Tan Sri Chin Fook Weng said that the party was a victim of circumstances rather than committing more outright mistakes.
Chin said the first Gerakan president - the late Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu had advocated about the need to be multi - cultural and multi - ethnic.
Chin said as Gerakan was part of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, when MCA and MIC leaders quarreled, Gerakan was forced to accept them into their fold because the coalition did not want to lose them to the Opposition parties.
"Over time, they (Chinese) grew in numbers so the Indians and Malays started to look like minorities when they should have been an even spread of diverse members."
He said due to its role in BN, it became difficult for Gerakan to realise its multi-ethnic agenda.