Malaysia Matters Podcast

According to Teng Hock Nan, Vice President of Gerakan, 60% of his members want out of BN because of disagreement with racial polices if BN is ”not willing to initiate drastic changes.” 

Gerakan’s primary constituency is a Chinese minority and only has two members in parliament, but leaving would be a crack in the damn with others soon to go as well.

DAP parliamentary leader, Lim Kit Siang, part of Anwar’s PKR coalition, projects who would be next:

“I dare say that if given the opportunity to voice out, it is not just over 60 per cent of the grass roots in Gerakan but also over 60 per cent of the membership in MCA and MIC would want their parties to leave Barisan Nasional – and the percentage will be even higher for the Barisan Nasional component parties in Sabah and Sarawak, even exceeding 80%, ” Lim said Sunday (28 Sept) at a ceramah in Serdang, Selangor.

Lim said the UMNO putra leadership, despite the major blow suffered by UMNO political hegemony in the March 8 general election by a multi-racial and multi-religious Pakatan Rakyat, has proved to be utterly insensitive, blind and deaf to the legitimate aspirations of all Malaysians, including ordinary Malays.

So when might this happen, and would Gerekan jump over to the PKR?

Gerakan Secretary General Chia Kwang Chye said party officials are likely to discuss the possibility of leaving the coalition at their annual congress on Oct. 11. Teng said the party has set no deadline for a decision, adding that it has no immediate plans to join opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s three-party alliance.