The Malaysian Insight

GERAKAN is treated more fairly by Perikatan Nasional as opposed to Barisan Nasional, Dominic Lau said.

The Gerakan president said PN treats each of its component parties as equal partners and there are no “followers” under the coalition.

“In PN, voices of other party components are heard and we can give views and suggestions.

“All voices are heard and proposals are accepted and discussed by PN at the central level. This is the difference we have in the PN.

“BN was not like this,” he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur last night after the party’s breaking-of-fast event.

Lau said together with PN, Gerakan is also free to contest in any seat at the next general election.

This is because as a new coalition, seat negotiations among component parties is also more open without being tied to a specific quota for each party, he said.

“We are now in the new norm. We no longer have traditional seats. Before (with BN) there was (distribution of traditional seats), Gerakan contested 11 parliamentary seats and 31 state seats in the last general election.

“Right now there is no tradition yet; whoever has winning percentage in the constituency, and they will be the candidate.

“This is a new norm that we agreed on, as long as we win the next general election,” said Lau.

Gerakan joined PN last February after the party left BN as soon as the coalition lost in the 14th general election (GE14).

PN consists of Bersatu, PAS, Gerakan, and Sarawak based parties such as SAPP and STAR.

“In PN there are five components. All have constituencies they want to contest but other parties in PN may also want the seat.

“But this is not an issue. The issue is who can win. This is a priority. We don’t care who represents PN in a particular constituency. Our priority is that the candidate can win,” he said.

Lau also said that Gerakan was assigned to attract support from young voters, especially non-Malays and non-Muslims.

“In the peninsula, Bersatu and PAS have the role to win the Malays and Muslims. Gerakan has the role to draw support from non-Malay non-Muslims.

“We will meet with non-Muslims and non-Malays regularly to listen to their suggestions.

“As promised to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, as a component party we want to ensure PN’s victory in GE15,” said Lau.

Bersatu also has its non-Muslim wing, created after the entry of PKR splinter group led by former deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali.

In the Tg Piai by-election Gerakan contested on its own ticket by nominating national women leader Wendy Subramaniam, but lost.

Realising this, Lau said Gerakan was aware that they could not move alone and needed a political coalition.

Lau also said that Gerakan was also closer to PAS after joining PN.

“We understand the issue of Islam better now and we need more meetings to better understand each other.

“There are many good signs. There are issues but we can discuss,” he said.

He added the advantage of PN is the coalition has a corruption-free record compared with the BN and Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalitions.

“We have a record, managing Penang for 39 years. Show us any court cases, there is none, but 13 years of DAP in Penang, there are court cases.

“Between the two coalitions, PH and BN each have a case in court, PN has zero cases.

“With PN, there is a better opportunity for Gerakan than BN,” added Lau. – May 6, 2021.