GERAKAN president Dominic Lau’s frequent flip-flops over support for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin have party grassroots calling for his removal.

Lau has declared the former Barisan Nasional party as a third political force but has proved quick to switch sides as the situation changes.

Penang chairman Jason Loo Jieh Sheng is among the party leaders who have expressed publicly their anger at Lau.

Loo has regularly posted diatribes against Lau on Facebook since May 15, when Lau said in a press conference that Gerakan supports Muhyiddin due to his government’s “satisfactory” management of the Covid-19 crisis.

In the posts, Loo compared Lau unfavourably with the party’s early leaders, who were men of principle and integrity.

Lau, in contrast, lacked political acumen and “has ruined the party inside out”, said Loo.

“Change the president now or Gerakan will be a museum piece forever!” Loo said on May 23.

While openly calling for Lau’s removal, Loo would not agree to a no-confidence vote in the party president.

“I’m not thinking about such things at the moment,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Gerakan was a founding member of the Alliance, the precursor to BN, which it quit in 2018 after the regime lost the general election for the first time.

Lau, who became party president after the 2018 general election, vowed to revive Gerakan.

In the February political turmoil that followed the defection of Bersatu and a group of PKR lawmakers, he declared Gerakan’s backing for Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister.

After Pakatan Harapan was ousted and Muhyiddin was appointed to the top office, Lau called on the public to respect the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s appointment of the new prime minister.

Talk of a confidence vote in Lau, however, is dividing the party grassroots.

Some, like Batu branch chief Allan Tang, said Lau has a lot of explaining to do on why he switched sides to Muhyiddin.

But Tang disagreed that the president should be removed now.

“It would be a setback for the party which has lost momentum.”

Tang said many grassroots members are baffled over Lau’s turnabout.

“He should sit down and talk to the grassroots about the future direction of the party,” said Tang.

It is not just Lau’s about-face but his apparent condonation of the circumstances of Muhyiddin’s rise to power, which Loo had railed against on social media, that is making the party members uneasy.

Former Gerakan secretary-general Liang Teck Meng called Lau a leader who “sings one tune today, another tune tomorrow”.

“He frequently changes his mind, making Gerakan look like it follows the crowd. There is no vision. What’s the party’s position now?”

Liang said members are asking him to explain why support was pledged for Dr Mahathir only to change in a short time for Muhyiddin.

“You said you want to be the third force, the middle-ground party, then why do you publicly state support for Muhyiddin? How are the party grassroots to face the public?” Liang said.

Selangor Gerakan state chief David Ang denied knowledge of any move to call for an extraordinary meeting or a campaign to press for Lau’s removal.

Ang said the press conference held on May 15 to declare support for Muhyiddin was endorsed by the party’s central committee.

“Because of the movement restrictions (due to Covid-19), we had the meeting online.

“There were no objections to the decision to support Muhyiddin as prime minister at the meeting,” Ang said.

The row has revealed cracks in the party as some members have filed complaints with the disciplinary committee against others allegedly planning to remove the president.

Sources confirmed with The Malaysian Insight the committee is in the midst of investigating a number of such complaints. – May 28, 2020.