Gerakan as alternative choice
Published on: Sunday, September 22, 2019
By: Anthea Peter
KOTA KINABALU: Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Gerakan) is looking to position itself as an alternative choice for the rakyat in its move to contest in the 15th general election (GE15).
Newly-elected Gerakan National President Datuk Dr Dominic Lau said the party will stand for elections despite its previous setback of not winning neither parliamentary nor assembly seats in the last general election.
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“Based on survey and feedback, there is a possibility that the people will support neither Pakatan Harapan (PH) nor Barisan Nasional (BN). So, many of them might decide not to come out and vote in GE15.
“If you support neither PH nor BN, then Gerakan is a choice that you can consider… that’s why we are focusing ourselves as the third force at this moment,” he told reporters at a press conference, here, Friday.
Dominic said the party’s central committee is visiting the State to have a closed-door dialogue with Sabah leaders.
“I would like to say that we didn’t give up on Sabah, that’s why we are here. During the closed-door meeting, we will mainly discuss how to rebuild Gerakan in Sabah,” he said.
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Dominic said due to the party’s limited resources, Gerakan has decided to stand in Kota Kinabalu and Tawau. However, the number of seats is yet to be decided.
The reason for choosing to stand in KK and Tawau is to have a base in both the east and west sides, he said.
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Dominic added that Gerakan, which is a former BN component party, would be committed to coming up with solutions and policies that would be beneficial to the rakyat.
“After we pulled out of BN, Gerakan became an independent professional political party. When I say we are independent, we are neither supporting PH nor BN… but based on issues.
“Whatever policies by the government that are not good for the rakyat, we will criticise… and come up with solutions.
“Because pointing out the weaknesses of policies is easy…but to come up with solutions is not easy.”
He added that Gerakan would be capable in doing so due to the party’s experience in ruling the Penang State government, with Tun Dato’ Seri Dr Lim Chong Eu and Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, who are former Penang Chief Ministers.
Dominic believes Gerakan will make a difference as he claims that the party is corruption-free.
“The best part is we are very clean. With the new leadership that we have, we don’t have any baggage, because all of us have not been ministers before… we are green and clean.
“The central committee has already decided in the coming GE that the party will use its logo to contest,” he said, adding that low awareness on the party’s presence among the younger generation may be a challenge.
“Some youngsters do not know Gerakan. We know this is our weakness and this is a challenge we are going to face,” he said.
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