In three days, Gerakan has provided ample evidence that it has been reduced to the status of a “three-stooges” party in Barisan Nasional which dare not speak up on the great issues of right and wrong in Malaysia but could only dwell on trifles and trivialities.

Firstly, there is the Gerakan President and Minister Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong as the first stooge who created political history by issuing a challenge, not on behalf of himself, but on behalf of another, when he challenged me to contest against the Barisan Nasional/Gerakan Penang State Chairman Teng Chang Yeow in the 14th General Election.

Secondly, a second stooge when we see the BN/Gerakan Penang State Chairman continuing to “twist and turn” to camouflage his desire to contest again in next general election, but he dared not return to Padang Kota where he had been Assemblyman for three terms in 1995, 1999 and 2004 but was defeated by Penang DAP State Chairman Chow Kon Yeow in the 2008 General Election by a margin of 1,666 votes.

In the 2013 General Election, he was afraid to face Chow again in Padang Kota and ran away to what he thought was the safest seat for Gerakan in Bukit Tengah, but was defeated by the PKR candidate, Ong Chin Wen with a huge margin of 5,190 votes.

As a result, Teng has continued to “twist and turn” just to broadcast his desire to contest again in Penang in the 14th General Election, but not against Chow in Padang Kota or to go back to Bukit Tengah.

My advice to Teng remains the same: he cannot be an effective commander-in-chief of Penang Barisan Nasional in the 14GE if he is a coward, as no Barisan Nasional candidate in Penang would have respect for him.

Teng should announce that he will return to Padang Kota where he had been State Assemblyman for three terms from 1995 to 2008 to break the Gerakan “egg” in Penang State Assembly for two terms in the forthcoming 14GE.

If Teng dare not return to Padang Kota to fight Chow, he should just call it a day in Gerakan politics.

Thirdly, we have the third stooge in the person of the Gerakan vice-president Dominic Lau who tried to create news by attacking the Perak DAP State Chairman and Taiping MP, Nga Kor Ming for a jibe involving the SEA Games and Penang billionaire Low Taek Jho, a central figure in the 1MDB scandal.

Lau accused Nga of malicious intent for linking the 1MDB scandal to the ongoing Kuala Lumpur SEA Games 2017.

Different views have been expressed about the propriety of Nga’s use of the SEA Games in his jibe against Jho Low and 1MDB, but no one in his right senses would accuse Nga of linking the 1MDB scandal to the SEA Games.

Gerakan leaders dare not breathe a word of criticism against the 1MDB scandal, which has brought infamy and ignominy to Malaysia as a “global kleptocracy” as Gerakan has long forgotten the desire of the early Gerakan leaders to be the “conscience” of Barisan Nasional.

But if Gerakan leaders dare not speak up on the great rights and wrongs in Malaysia, they should not discourage or obstruct Malaysians who dare to speak up for the country.

Malaysians can still remember the great efforts and “tons of money” spent by Jho Low to topple DAP in Penang, in particular to defeat the Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng in the Air Putih State Assembly constituency, in the 2013 General Election – but Gerakan still could not break the “egg” which it got in the 2008 general election.

The three stooges in Gerakan should not think that Malaysians could be so easily fooled by their tricks and games.

(Media Statement in Penang on Wednesday, August 23, 2017)