Following MCA Youth, Gerakan has now urged BN, in particular its major parties Umno and MCA, to consider open memberships for all regardless of race.

Speaking at the Gerakan annual delegates congress, deputy president Cheah Soon Hai reminded that Umno founder Onn Jaafar mooted to recruit non-Malay members.

"Given that (recent) political activities focussing on race and religion have worsened the nation's ethnic relations, Onn Jaafar's suggestion in the early 50s is still relevant today," he said.

Onn Jaafar was Umno founder and its first president. He left Umno and set up the Independence of Malaya Party (IMP) after his idea was ignored.

IMP failed to receive sufficient support in the elections, prompting Onn Jaafar to leave the party and establish another Malay-centric party, Parti Negara.

Others are comfortable with current situation

Later in the press conference, Cheah added that the suggestion was posed to BN members including Umno and MCA previously.

“They know our stand, this is not something new, (former Gerakan president) Koh Tsu Koon and (current president) Mah Siew Keong raised this before.

“They are still comfortable with the current scenario... Indeed, it is not easy for them to change, we will keep raising our demands,” he said, adding that the current political developments have prompted Gerakan to raise the idea again.

Quizzed what was Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s response to the idea, he said the question should be directed to Najib himself.

Earlier, Gerakan Youth chief Tan Keng Liang ( photo ) also rued that 1 percent black sheep in Umno has destroyed the 1Malaysia spirit that BN has strenuously built.

“For instance, BN truly does not want to close down SJK(C). The PM has stressed repeatedly that BN will not, and yet, certain BN leaders threatened to shut them down.”

“What is worse, certain people allegedly said ‘slapping Chinese’... these people only represent 1 percent in Umno.

“We have Umno friends, we know they are not like these. How can this be? This must be stopped,” he said.

Act against the 1pct black sheep

Thus, the outspoken Gerakan leader urged BN to set up a disciplinary committee to act against these “bad examples”, regardless of their positions.

“No matter whether they are ministers or deputy ministers, those with high-ranking positions should be a model for the grassroots, not bad examples.

“We worked hard for 1Malaysia spirit. It was destroyed due to these 1 percent. I don’t think it’s worth it,” he said.

BN leaders put efforts to make the voters happy but these “racist champions” and extremists have in turn enraged them, he lamented.

“BN will not survive for long if such racists and extremists continue to exist within BN,” he added.