Kedah Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang is challenging for the party's national youth chief post and believes his social media skills give him an edge.

NONETan (right) said he made the decision after consulting the grassroots on whether he should aim to lead the party's Youth wing.

"I have been doing the party's work in Kedah for the past five years and have been vocal in speaking up on local and national issues. Now that BN has recaptured Kedah, I can focus even more on these tasks."

When told that Penang Gerakan Youth chief Oh Tong Keong has also offered himself for the post, Tan declined to comment, saying "he is my friend".

"This is a friendly contest in the spirit of democracy," Tan, a lawyer, quipped.

Asked how he would improve the Youth wing should he win the contest, Tan said he would like to see his colleagues in BN focus more on social media to reach out to voters.

"More effort must be put into this area. A lot of issues and information passed on to voters by Pakatan are not true but we are not able to counter these false views effectively," he admitted.

Delegates will be nominating their youth and women chiefs on Oct 18 and polls are fixed for Oct 25, a day before the party's national delegates conference in Kuala Lumpur.

NONEDelegates will be voting in their new party national chief on Oct 26, to replace outgoing head and former Penang Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon (left), who quit his post after Gerakan performed poorly - two elections in a row - in 2008 and the May 5 polls this year.

The 36-year old Tan is nine years younger than his opponent Oh, and his presence is visible in social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, where his daily comments, especially against Pakatan leaders, generate active responses from his followers.

Oh, on the other hand, is known to be a team player in BN coalition as he is easily accepted by the party's component partners, and has the backing of Penang Gerakan chief Teng Chang Yeow.

Recently Oh threw his support publicly behind Teng, together with other branch leaders, when he contested against lawyer Baljit Singh for the state chief post.

‘Bold and effective'

This morning, Oh sent a statement urging for support and to be given the mandate to lead as he offered himself for the national youth chief post.

He says, with a united team, he plans to bring new hope and strengthen the Youth wing so that it would become "more bold and effective".

NONEWhen contacted, Oh (left) said if he wins the post, his first task is to consolidate the Youth wing, sayings its mechanism is "a bit loose now".

"We want to build up a more vocal image to embody the party's ideology and spirit when it was first formed," he told Malaysiakini.

"If you do not even dare to speak out, how would the people expect you to fight for them?" he asked.

Oh said the Youth wing needs to tidy up its contact list and network more to increae the connection and interaction between them.

He added that recently, most members only attend annual general meetings and failed to be active after that.

Oh said Youth leaders also needed training on how to deliver ceramahs (political talks), and plans to invite experts to motivate them on improving their public speaking skills.

"We need to learn how to instigate public sentiments because we are first class in organising activities but at a disadvantage in giving speeches or ceramah," he added.

Like Tan, Oh agrees that the party needs to improve its social media skills, adding that while many use the sites, they still lack in engaging the public or responding to issues.