Gerakan will always be a party of “slaves and puppets” at Umno’s disposal and is useful only to bring in votes for the ruling Barisan Nasional, said an opposition party leader.

Penang PKR chief Zahrain Mohemed Hassim said this is clear from how Umno had reacted to Gerakan Youth vice-chief S Paranjothy’s allegations that the Malay-based party had exploited racial sentiments for its own political mileage.

Paranjothy also drew flak from Umno for criticising the government for "marginalising, oppressing and ignoring" the Indian Malaysian community which resulted in them being "fourth-class citizens".

“Umno is willing to sever relationship with one of its component parties just because they can’t handle the valid criticism of one brave youth leader who spoke the truth,” said Zahrain in press statement released yesterday.

Zahrain also blasted Gerakan leadership under party president Koh Tsu Koon, who is also Penang chief minister, as weak and incapable of being independent from Umno.

“The statement by Koh that Paranjothy will be disciplined or even dismissed reflects the weak leadership of Gerakan - a party totally submissive to the iron grip of Umno.” added Zahrain.

Public humiliation for Gerakan

Meanwhile, Penang PKR deputy youth chief Jason Ong described Umno Youth chief Hishammuddin Hussein’s threat to break ties with Gerakan following Paranjothy’s statement as a typical display of arrogance by Umno.

“Umno doesn’t need Gerakan or even MCA because of the superior political power Umno has over BN component parties especially when it possesses more than 50 percent parliamentary seats.

“That is why Umno can display its arrogance by publicly humiliating other BN component parties and they will continue to be humiliated as long as they work with Umno,” said Ong.

He also stressed that this is the second time this year Umno had publicly humiliated its coalition partners with threats of booting them out from BN.

In October, Umno vice-president and Malacca Chief Minister Mohd Ali Rustam had told the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) that it could leave BN if it was not happy with the allocation of seats within the coalition.

While PPP members had expressed outrage at the remarks, the Umno leadership however did not take any disciplinary action against the chief minister.