Gerakan reminds UMNO: 'Please be a good big brother'

UMNO may be considered a 'big brother' to the other component parties, but it should be mindful of whether it was overshadowing them.

Gerakan presidential candidate Datuk Mah Siew Keong expressed this today, reminding the largest Malay-based party in Barisan Nasional(BN) that other, smaller, component parties should also be given a voice.

"Yes, UMNO is a big brother. That's fine. But a good big brother must know how to look after his younger sisters and siblings and his father, too," Mah, the current vice-president and acting secretary general of the party.

Mah was speaking at a press conference following nominations this morning which confirmed that he will go head-to-head with Penang party chief Teng Chang Yeow for the Gerakan president post.

Asked if Gerakan will re-consider its position in BN, especially if UMNO does not open up for a bigger role for the party, Mah said that the party will decide "if it comes to that... then it comes to that".

Mah stressed that UMNO and BN as a whole should meet with component party leaders more often brather than having “different leaders saying different things”, citing the recent controversial kalimah Allah issue.

Expressing his vision for the flailing party, which use to be called the ‘conscience of BN’, Mah said it needed to “go back to basics”

“Back to the time when we just formed in the 1960s, the things we were fighting for, we need to review our role within BN,” he said.

Despite admitting that Gerakan has “lost track of its identity over the years”, Mah maintained that it still has “a good future”.

Mah said that his manifesto to bring Gerakan forward included having more training programmes for old and new leaders, engaging state leaders, making presidency a two-term maximum position, having bureaus for each ministry, and reviewing operating procedures for election candidates.

He also said the party was considering adopting UMNO's new election system, which allowed for more delegates to vote.

Mah’s press briefing was flanked by a dozen or so candidates for the top central posts; starkly different with Teng’s who was alone when he spoke to the press.

Teng said that Gerakan needs to be “business unusual” in handling the new political landscape.

“We need a completely new approach to strengthen our organisation. We need to go back to our primary objective of being a people’s movement party... based on fairness and justicefor all,” he said.

Among his proposed reforms for Gerakan was: having full time organising secretaries, epanding ‘Satu hati academy’ nationwide, creating grassroot movements to engage NGOs, and forming an online media team.

These, he said, could “revitalise, rebuild and reenergise” the party.

On criticisms against him for ‘returning’ to the party, Teng said that he took responsibility when the party failed in the elections, but now has contested all the way up.

Rebuting concerns that he would stretch himself too thin, Teng said that it was a "matter of managing people" and showing leadership skills. He noted that past presidents had chief minister or government posts and he does not.