I have been following closely the various ceramah by the various opposition parties as well as maintstream media on the topic of the outgoing Penang Chief Minister and his potential successors.

I must say that the opposition parties have done well to highlight the empty promises (for example the promise made in 1999 by the outgoing chief minister that Penang would be on parity with Singapore in terms of income). However, I feel the opposition parties have not done enough to highlight the shortcomings of the outgoing Penang chief minister and his would-be successors in that none of them exudes the confidence, charisma, and vision as former Penang chief minister Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu.

The outgoing Penang CM and the pretenders to his crown are nothing more than bureaucrats. They just go through the routine paces of governance and nothing more. I urge the opposition to challenge them to a debate to spell out their vision of the future of Penang not for the next one or two years, but for the next 10 years. I would think they would probably have put very little thought in this as they are busy campaigning to ensure they get elected.

The way for all the successes of Dr Koh Tsu Koon were paved by Lim Chong Eu. There has been no major contribution during his 17-year tenure that can be attributed as his own. The same goes for his would be successors, Lee Kah Choon, Dr Teng Hock Nan, and Chia Kwang Chye who will be nothing more than just pencil-pushers, just letting Penang go on autopilot or, as I would say, a motorless boat swaying against the tide.

Doesn't Gerakan have any charismatic and visionary leaders? From the crop of successors waiting to be CM, it doesn't seem so. Up until today, Koh has not announced his successor. Is it because he is waiting to see who will be left standing and who will bite the dust come election day?

I would like to remind the people of Penang that we have really lagged behind other states as pointed out by DAP Jelutong candidate Jeff Ooi. The fact the Penang's electronic industry has been at the forefront of Penang's economy has been due to the hard work and experience gained by the people of Penang. W

We also have been plain lucky as the electronics industry has not hit a very rough patch prompting layoffs and voluntary separation schemes (VSS) in an en-bloc fashion. We are really at the mercy of the world-wide electronics industry although our finance minister international trade and industry minister would tell us otherwise and say our economy is de-coupled from the effects of recession of foreign economies especially in the US.

We live in a global village which is getting smaller and smaller by the day and I say that both ministers lack either economic intelligence or are living in Dreamland.

I therefore urge Penangites to evaluate carefully the potential would be successors for the chief minister's post and see for themselves whether any of these candidates exude more confidence and charisma than the opposition. We don't need bureaucrats. We need someone who can offer us hope like US Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Penang needs visionaries who can chart Penang's future not for one or two years but for the next 10 to 20 years. If BN leaders cannot do that, I say we need to give the opposition a chance to do so. Otherwise, Penang will keep on drifting until it reaches a precipice.