Since the seismic development on July 14, when Pakatan Harapan Presidential Council announced the Pakatan Harapan structure, logo and leadership line up, signifiying the final Mahathir-Anwar reconciliation after nearly two decades of political enmity, the past 16 days have seen increasing panic among UMNO/Barisan Nasional leaders about the very real prospects of losing Putrajaya and the Federal Government in the forthcoming 14th General Election.

As a result, even MCA and Gerakan leaders are joining more UMNO leaders in resorting to “whistling in the dark” to hide their increasing panic, shouting from their rooftops that they are not panicking!

MCA President, Datuk Liow Tiong Lai, for instance, is suddenly putting up a bold front proclaiming in Penang that MCA is confident that there will be a change of support among voters in Penang as the people have lost confidence in the DAP for failing to fulfil their promises after taking over the state nine years ago while declaring to the 45th annual general meeting of the Young Malaysians Movement in Kuala Lumpur that MCA believes that the Chinese community is shifting its support back to Barisan Nasional.

Gerakan President Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong announced the Gerakan’s three candidates to contest the Segambut, Batu and Kepong parliamentary seats and declared that Chinese votes for Barisan Nasional are expected to improve to 30% in the 14th General Election from the 13.4% received in the 2013 polls.

It is indeed a great national tragedy and shame that at a historic period when the nation is on threshold of a possible change of Federal government in six decades, MCA and Gerakan leaders have fallen to such a parlous level that they could only indulge in “whistling in the dark” hoping to win more electoral seats depending on UMNO, instead of being focused on the great issues confronting the people and country.

I just want to gently remind MCA and Gerakan leaders that that they are in for a surprise if they think that they can continue to survive by hanging to the coat-tails of UMNO leaders, even discredited, autocratic and kleptocratic UMNO leaders.

Let me advise MCA and Gerakan leaders to wake up and face the brutal truth: that UMNO leaders are fighting a battle of survival and UMNO leaders are worried about the following three things in the next general election:

• Whether UMNO candidates would lose the support of the majority of Malay voters in the country;

• Whether UMNO candidates would lose the support of the majority of the 1.6 million civil servants in the country; and

• Whether the UMNO candidates would lose the support of the majority of the 3.5 million UMNO members in the country.

UMNO leaders would not have much time for MCA and Gerakan when they themselves are fighting for their political lives, especially as all indications point to the 14th General Elections as more likely this year than next.

I had advised MCA leaders that MCA would be reduced from a 7/11 party (winning only seven parliamentary and 11 state assembly seats) in the 13GE into a ¾ (tiga suku) political party winning only three parliamentary and four state assembly seats in the 14GE if MCA continues to be spineless and unprincipled and dare not take a stand on the following issues:

• Dare not say a word about the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal which had catapulted Malaysia overnight into a global kleptocracy;

• continues to allow the UMNO President to play footsie with PAS President, Datuk Seri Awang Hadi on the RUU355 Bill, with Hadi having a greater influence on Najib on matters concerning Islamic administration.

• Dare not defend the Federal Constitution, Malaysia Agreement 1963 and Rukunegara 1970 by demanding that the Cabinet revoke the ridiculous and illogical ban on G25 book on “Breaking the Silence –Voices of Moderation: Islam in a Constitutional Democracy”; and

• Continue a spineless and unprincipled stand in not daring to oppose illegal abuses of power, like the unconstitutional extension of the tenures of the Chief Justice, Tan Sri Raus Sharif and Court of Appeal President, Tan Sri Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin to block the judicial promotion of the Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak, Tan Sri Richard Malanjum.

The fate for Gerakan in the 14th General Election whether in Penang State or nation-wide would be as dismal as MCA if on the great questions of right and wrong, Gerakan proves to be a spineless, unprincipled and useless as their counterparts in MCA.