Gerakan consolidating itself for GE15 – Lau

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Lau (fifth left) with other Gerakan national and state leaders during the press conference.

KOTA KINABALU: The people may not even come out to vote in the 15th General Elections (GE15) as they will neither support Pakatan Harapan nor Barisan Nasional (BN).

Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (Gerakan) president Datuk Dr Dominic Lau Hoe Chai said that his party’s recent survey had revealed that the people are unhappy with the current government’s performance.

“We are aware the current situation is quite challenging, especially for those parties that did not manage to win any seats in the recent elections (GE14). However, the situation has now changed. The performance of Pakatan Harapan has disappointed the people.

“According to the feedback from our survey, we have found that, when GE15 comes, the people will not vote for PH nor that they would vote for BN.

“Many of them may decide not to vote in GE15. So now, Gerakan is positioning itself for the people…Gerakan would be the choice that the people would consider,” Dominic told reporters during a press conference here on Friday.

In view of this, he stressed that Gerakan would emerge as the ‘third force’ in GE15.

He said that Gerakan would not side with any party. However, it will support any policies (made by either sides) that are good for the people and it will oppose those that are bad for the people.

“We want to become an independent professional political party,” said Dominic, adding that, the party has the experience to manage the country.

“Also, the best part is that we are all ‘clean’. We don’t have any ‘baggage’. None of us (in the current leadership) were ministers before,” he said.

As a first step, Dominic said that the party would be ‘entirely consolidating’ itself.

“If we are unable to convince our own members to support the candidates for Gerakan, then it would be difficult for the people to support our candidate,” he said.

He added that Gerakan would also be using its own logo in the next election.

He admitted that some of the youngsters might not even heard of Gerakan and thus this can be a weakness to them.

In this regard, the party has instructed all its members to wear the Gerakan uniform in all official party meetings and functions – in a bid to make the logo better known.

He also said that Gerakan had not given up on Sabah, despite the departure of the two former state leaders, namely Tan Sri Liew Yun Fah and Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah, who both served as the party’s vice presidents in the past.

Liew resigned from his position before GE14 and went on to join Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) in December last year while Raymond left Gerakan in April this year and went to join Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) during the Sandakan by-election.

Dominic revealed that, in GE15, Gerakan would be eyeing for the seats in Kota Kinabalu and Tawau.

“The party has decided on how many areas it will contest but we have not decided on how many seats we will stand in. Mainly, we will be going to stand in Kota Kinabalu and Tawau,” he said.

On Friday, the national leaders of Gerakan had come to Sabah to conduct a closed-door meeting with the state leaders to discuss on its direction.

He further disclosed that, during the party’s recent elections, the Sabah Gerakan committee was not formed, as none of the Sabah Gerakan members had contested.

As for now, Sabah Gerakan had only managed to form its division and branch delegates.

It is understood that Ben Liew will helm the position of Gerakan state protem chairman, pending the next party elections, which is expected to be held in 2021.

Gerakan Sabah currently has 147 branches.