Cyrix’s Codex

I remembered when I was living in Bukit Mertajam, Penang, I frequently visited my uncle’s house. Sometimes there, I see him typing letters with a letter-head of some padi in a triangle. It was only much later in life that I found out what it actually represented, and that my uncle was the secretary of the local Gerakan branch.

Parti Gerakan Rayat Malaysia, better known as Gerakan, is a multiracial political party founded in 1968. It’s current leader is Dr Lim Keng Yaik.

So is Gerakan still relevant? Let’s check out their stats to find out, shall we?

After the 04 General and State Elections:

Federal seats: 10
State seats: 30
Share of votes: 3.7 %

*From The Star, via Wikipedia

I’ve always thought of Gerakan as a centrist, northern version of DAP actually. True, it’s roots wre not grounded in the union movement, and so I’m venturing a guess that it’s early support comes more from the intellectual English-educated middle class of Malaysians of all races, and not the labour unions.

Gerakan used to be an opposition party, but it then decided to join the BN coalition, which I personally feel was a betrayal of Gerakan’s multiracial struggle and principles. It claims to do so because it will make it easier for them to get funding for Penang from the Federal Government, and also to ‘reform BN from within’. But I think it’s quite apparent now that they’ve failed miserably in their second aim. BN’s UMNO, MCA and MIC are still going as strong as ever with their respective race-based policies and outlooks in BN, while Gerakan has been relegated to the role of being MCA-junior. In fact, not too long ago, there was even talk of a possible merger between it and MCA! What a sad fate for a once principled and promising party. I felt that a more principled (although definitely more painful) alliance would be one with DAP, and possibly PRM as well to inject more Malay interest and support for it. This would also preserve their objection towards the racially-divided BN coalition.

Judging from the stats above, I would say that Gerakan is still relevant, but only as a state party, and not as a federal one. It (I think) still currently controls my home-state of Penang. But on the federal level, I don’t think they have any influence at all now. The other thing about Gerakan that I am a critical about is it not wanting to run for seats in any other states apart from Penang! This deprives the Malaysians who want a multiracial party to represent them, and who in the end, have to settle for UMNO, MCA or MIC. They also seem to have stagnanted as a party, bereft of any new ideas now. At least DAP is still being vocal about many issues that’s happening in Malaysia right now.

The other thing that I don’t like about Gerakan is it’s (again) failure in preserving its past’s vibrant multiracial make-up. I just took a look at it’s party’s organisation, and it was quite pitiful actually. I only saw 2 non-Chinese members holding national posts, both Indians. In contrast, DAP has 6 non-Chinese holding important national posts in it, with 5 being Indians and 1 being a Malay. I guess Gerakan IS fully on its way towards becoming just another MCA now….

Lastly, this doesn’t really have anything to do with the topic, but I just noticed it. Check out these stats (from the same source as above):

Gerakan:

Federal seats won: 10
National share of votes: 3.7%

DAP:

Federal seats won: 12
National share of votes: 9.9% (!)

Talk about gerrymandering! Here’s a terrific intro on what gerrymandering is, curtesy of The Cicak.

But that’s not the worst. Check out PKR’s:

PKR:

Federal seats won: 1
National share of votes: 8.9% (!!!)