Warlords in Gerakan? It has been existing long time ago

To our very surprise, the Gerakan Youth had sprung up in public last week to voice their displeasure over the current Gerakan's branches and divisional leaderships which its party youth chief Lim Si Pin claimed that they are still being dominated by local party warlords and these local leaders had refused to make way for younger leaders within the party to take helm the branches and divisional leadership.

Just like their larger BN colleagues, Umno, MCA and MIC, it seems Gerakan is also suffering from the same kind of situation from within its ranks. Yes, factionalism and warlordism in the party is very strong when the party has been in power for decades long.

During Gerakan's years in Penang (as the state government and the party's power base) until 2008, factional feuds and warlords within the party's ranks in branches and divisions are widely known. It is believed that until today, there are about 6 factions still active in Penang Gerakan with each of these factional leaders trying to outdo or sabotage each other.

Previously, the current old horse, state party chairman Dr Teng Hock Nan was slightly shaken when some factions within the state leadership had deliberately instigated a signatory campaign to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) in order to unseat Dr Teng but as the party president Dr Koh Tsu Koon stood in to calm the situation, Dr Teng managed to survived with a small majority.

Even though these factions oppose to Dr Teng had failed to unseat him in the said EGM, these factions still command an equal strength as of Dr Teng's own.

Apart from the state Gerakan leadership, the branches and divisional levels are also tightly gripped by older members with its youth members merely standing by the side taking instructions. Only a handful of these youth leaders did manage to make it to the state committee. However, most of these supposedly "youth members" had already reach the age of 38 to 44 respectively.

Asides, Penang Gerakan, other states where Gerakan used to have strongholds, like some parts of Perak, Selangor and Johor also has their own factions and warlords dominating the states, divisional and branch leaderships. Except for Selangor, Gerakan still enjoys being in power in Perak and Johor under the BN coalition.

This means, like their BN partners, factionalism and warlordism in Gerakan has been existing decades and we wonder why only now the Gerakan Youth realised the trend is swallowing up their youth members. In this case, is Si Pin telling us that he is the one who is working hard to break the warlords' control over the party while the previous youth chiefs had done nothing in addressing this situation? Are the previous Gerakan youth chiefs warlords too?

Records show that most of the previous Gerakan youth chiefs were either state executive councillors or deputy ministers in the federal cabinet, while Si Pin does not hold any government posts in his current capacity as the national youth chief. Maybe, he is feeling that he is currently being sidelined.

It is all about positions!

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