Gerakan has returned fire at criticism levelled at the party by Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir, stating it will not “stand for bullying” or “vindictive politics”.

NONEGerakan secretary-general Mah Siew Keong (right) also trained his guns on Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairperson Nur Jazlan Mohamed for his negative remarks about Gerakan yesterday, saying it was “unfortunate” the two leaders chose to attack Gerakan over the “principled stand” it has taken.

“Certain Umno leaders have been constantly bullying the coalition partners in BN and concomitant to that is the loss of support among Malaysians as Gerakan, and even MCA, are seen as weak and supine.

“In 1999, when the Malays voted against BN because of the Anwar Ibrahim factor, Umno did not relentlessly attack the Malay community, in fact Umno sought to understand the concerns of the Malay community, studied the loss of support and made amends,” Mah said.

He questioned why the same treatment was not accorded to the Malaysian Indian and Chinese communities,  in the wake of the recent general election results.

Gerakan, he said, would not stand for any attempt to bully any Malaysian community and would continue to speak up against what he deemed as “vindictive politics”.

“Mukhriz and Nur Jazlan are playing to the gallery because they want to prevail in the Umno election. But at what cost to the nation?

“They must understand that if they continue to thrive in the fault lines of politics, they will be doing a great disservice to BN, which has prided itself on keeping us united for the past 56 years,” Mah said.

Gerakan to assist BN in Sg Limau

The Umno vice-president hopeful, Mukhriz, said yesterday that Gerakan and MCA were “more  racist than DAP”, after the two BN component parties criticised his statement that he would not help Chinese schools in Kedah, but would rather prioritise the Malay community and BN supporters.

NONEMeanwhile Nur Jazlan (right), who is running for a post in the Umno supreme council, told The Malay Mail Online that Gerakan must “prove themselves” before demanding a bigger role in BN, adding that it was the party's own in-fighting that had caused Chinese support for BN to wane.

Also in a statement, Kedah Gerakan chairperon Dr Cheah Soon Hai said Mukhriz’s accusation against the party was racist and “groundless”.

However, instead of boycotting the coming Sungai Limau by-election, as called for by DAP’s Seputeh MP Teresa Kok, Cheah said Gerakan would take the opportunity to explain Muhkriz’s statement to the people during that time.

“Since Chinese schools have received allocations prior to the 505 (May 5) election, therefore it is now time to hand out assistance to the national schools. I believe that it is his (Mukhriz’s) way of expressing that caused all these misunderstandings.

“Although Gerakan does not agree with his statement, we will continue working under the BN framework to assist in the coming by-election.” Cheah stressed.