Gerakan vice-president Huan Cheng Guan will stay put in Gerakan, officially at least. But rumours persist that he would inevitably join PKR in the near future.

gerakan vice president huan cheng guan Speaking at a press conference today in the Saffira Country Club in Seberang Jaya, the embattled Batu Kawan division chairperson reaffirmed his allegiance to Gerakan.

His official announcement however, is seen by certain party insiders as a move to quash persisting rumours that he was on his way out of Gerakan to PKR.

Sources said it was not comprehensible for Huan to continue being a Gerakan member after being slapped with a show-cause letter two weeks ago.

Huan told newsmen that he would reply to the show-cause letter dated June 1 by today. He will also hand over his reply personally to Gerakan president Koh Tsu Koon in Parliament tomorrow.

In the show-cause letter, Gerakan's central working committee (CWC) gave Huan 14 days to explain his media outburst against the party, namely the leadership of Penang chief Dr Teng Hock Nan.

Despite his attempt to express his loyalty to Gerakan, it is learnt that Huan would meet PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim during next week's parliamentary sitting to discuss a possible defection to the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

Sources said Huan was positioning himself for a deal with the PKR leadership to ensure that he would join PKR at a high level.

Since he was a Gerakan vice-president, Huan and his colleagues would definitely seek some senior positions in PKR.

If the move materialise, it will be a crushing blow to Gerakan, which only 14 months ago was the ruling party of Penang. This could pave way for the eventual demise of Gerakan which ruled Penang for 39 years between 1969 and 2008.

Gerakan, a party torn by internal strife

Observers said the rapid crumbling of a party within a mere 14-month period after suffering severe electoral reverses, including the loss of power in Penang in the last general election, exposed the party's long existing internal strife.

"It was actually torn apart by internal rivalry all this while," said observers.

But insiders admitted that the party's position as ruling party in the island-state managed to somehow stop the break-up prior to the 2008 general election.

Now, they said, since Gerakan had become an extra baggage in the Barisan Nasional coalition, the inevitable break-up has become more visible.

lee kah choon One after another, credible leaders are departing, looking for greener pastures and a stronger environment to trade their politics.

Former Gerakan strongmen Lee Kah Choon ( pic ), Toh Kin Woon and women leader Rhina Bhar have already dumped the party.

Some 100 Gerakan grassroots leaders and members, including six division chiefs and two-third of branch leaders from Seberang Perai mainland, were present today to express full backing for Huan.

Huan claimed that he decided to remain as a Gerakan member and elected vice-president due to overwhelming requests to do so.

"I have received thousands of text messages across the country besides calls and visits by grassroots members asking me not to quit the party. I have to listen to them because they elected me as vice-president," he said.

Has strong grassroots support

Asked on his next move if party leadership were to sack him after receiving his show-cause reply, he said he would consider "one thing at a time".

It is learnt that if Huan were to go, the former Batu Kawan parliamentarian is expected to take more than 1,000 party members with him and dismantle some 100 party branches in the process.

Huan, 48, previously served as a special officer to former Penang deputy chief minister Dr Ibrahim Saad in the early 1990s, a close aide of then deputy premier Anwar.

He was also state Gerakan and Barisan Nasional Youth chief before being elected as vice-president.

Huan's strong grassroots support courted the envy of Gerakan leaders, and this led to him being backstabbed. Close friends of Huan said the Gerakan vice-president always felt “sidelined, isolated and neglected” by the leadership.

Huan, a businessman, said that many Gerakan leaders have lost touch with grassroots sentiments and aspirations, and do not show respect to branch and division leaders.

PKR state chief Zahrain Mohd Hashim, who acknowledged that Huan is a friend, has said the party would welcome the Gerakan leader with open arms.