GERAKAN, which governed Penang for 39 years between 1969 and 2008, believes the time is now ripe for the party to knock DAP off the pedestal and take over the state again.

Its president Dominic Lau said the party, even though it failed to win a single seat in the 2018 and recent general election (GE), has “the concept, strategy and talent” to rule Penang again.

Lau said the party has to convince the people of their ability and capability before they head to the forthcoming state election which could be held sometime in the middle of the year.

Penang was one of six states in the peninsula that did not dissolve their state assembly and have their state election coincide with the GE. The other five are Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu.

The six states must hold their state elections before September.

Lau told The Malaysian Insight that Gerakan’s main priority is to convince the people of Penang that the party is worth considering and it could be the better choice to the current Pakatan Harapan state government spearheaded by DAP.

He said one of the challenges facing Gerakan ahead of the state polls is to instil confidence among Penang voters.

Fielding the right candidates, he said, could help instil that confidence.

Apart from Penang, the 55 year-old party of liberals, would also be assisting its partners in the opposition Perikatan Nasional (PN), PAS and Bersatu, in Selangor.

Focus of the party

He said Gerakan, whose primary source of support comes from the ethnic Chinese, is leaving the election campaign in the Malay-Muslim majority states of Kelantan, Kedah and Terengganu to Bersatu and PAS.

He said it’s better to leave these states to the Malay and religious based partner parties.

Lau said if the result of the GE is to be used as a yardstick, then PN would have little problem retaining those states.

“PN will still retain the Malay-Muslim support of Muslims they got in the GE.”

In last year’s general election, PN, aided by PAS’ “green wave” swept all 14 parliamentary seats in Kelantan and 13 of the 14 seats in Kedah. They lost only Sungai Petani to PKR.

For the first time in history, it swept all eight seats in Terengganu.

Lau said Negri Sembilan is not their focus because PN believes the “bigger challenges” are Penang and Selangor.

“After analysing the situation, we feel that there is a chance we can take Selangor.”

On Gerakan’s candidates, Lau said the party will stick to those who had been picked earlier before the GE.

“We thought all states would dissolve their state assemblies and have simultaneous elections like before. So we got ours lined up.

“But the dissolutions did not happen. But in a sense, we are ready.”

Lau, who will be contesting for the Bukit Tengah seat in Penang, did not rule out there could be tweaks to the line up.

“Our aim is to ensure a PN victory. We’ll put up the best candidates of whom we have confidence will do a good job discharging their duties when elected.”

On January 10, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, had said the allocation of seats among the PN parties in the six states is 80% complete.

Gerakan’s role in Perikatan

Lau said he is also prepared if the Penang election results do not go their way.

“One thing is for sure. I will not resign the presidency and abandon the party.”

Gerakan, he said, still has a role to play in PN.

“Gerakan is a party that defends the interests and rights of all races. We believe in our political philosophy and we hope the voters believe in us too.

“It’s also a party that does not give up so easily amid adversity. We are not a party that was formed only yesterday.

“We still have a sizeable membership, the election machinery and a party structure to weather both political and electoral storms.”

Delving back into history, Lau said when it was founded in 1968, it was an opposition party.

He said from there they worked to gain the people of Penang’s support until they took over power.

History, he added, seemed to be repeating itself.

The party’s longest serving president, Lim Keng Yaik, had once said after the party lost power in 2008 that it would take at least three terms for it to make the turn around.

“When Gerakan returns to the top would depend on how well we can convince the people,” Lau said.

In the Malacca and Johor state elections last year, things didn’t pan out too well for Gerakan.

It won only two seats in the Malacca polls and three in Johor.

Gerakan joined Barisan Nasional (BN) in 1974, but joining the coalition did not seem to work out as the party’s fortune declined sharply culminating in the loss of Penang in the 2008 general election.

Following the fall of BN in the 2018 general election, Gerakan left the coalition on 23 June 2018 to be a non-aligned opposition party.

On February 11, 2021, the party officially joined PN. –  January 23, 2023.