A few weeks ago, Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong appealed to the people of Penang to give the party a chance to be a viable check and balance.

Gerakan has also started becoming active again, issuing statements and showing up at public events. It is funny that they chose to suddenly reappear only now, coinciding with the fact that we are less than two years away from the compulsory dissolution of Parliament. I am a little curious with the commitment of Gerakan seeing that they are appealing for the mandate of the people to be a check and balance.

1) Where were they since 2013? Even though they were the government in Penang for almost 40 years, if voters chose to give their mandate and confidence to another party, then they were supposed to play the role of an opposition party since then. Should voters trust them with a mandate since they only show up for work two years before compulsory dissolution?

2) Can they stand up to Umno? When Gerakan formed the BN with Umno and other parties in the 70s, they promised to be an ‘opposition within the government’ yet it seems like Gerakan will hardly move a muscle if big brother Umno were to ask them to vote along the BN line. People are still waiting for that elusive ‘opposition within the government’.

In the 12th general election, they could not even decide whether then-chief minister Dr Koh Tsu Koon should continue as CM or move to federal politics and had to check with then-prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

3) Will Gerakan be willing to leave the BN to once again realise their purpose to be a non-sectarian (non-racial) political party and fight to end racial politics in Malaysia? They can never realise that if they continue to be aligned with an Umno-dominated Barisan Nasional coalition.

There, three very simple questions for Gerakan to answer, if they seek the mandate of the people of Penang, I am sure these clarifications are simple enough for their basic appeal for votes. Can Gerakan be more than the perception that they are just a puppet of Umno?

CHRIS LEE CHUN KIT is a city councillor with the Penang Island City Council (Majlis Bandaraya Pulau Pinang) representing the DAP.