I spoke too soon.

I said on Tuesday that in three days, Gerakan had provided ample evidence that it had been reduced to a “three-stooges” party in Barisan Nasional which dared not speak up on the great issues of right and wrong in Malaysia but dwell on trifles and trivialities.

I was referring to the trio of Gerakan President and Minister for Plantation Industries and Commodities, Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong; the Penang State Gerakan Chairman Teng Chang Yeow and the Gerakan vice-president Dominic Lau.

But on the very same day, a fourth stooge appeared in the person of the Gerakan secretary-general Datuk Liang Teck Meng who tried to raise his own stocks by exploiting the Sungai Lembu illegal factory issue in Permatang Pauh.

As a result, we have a Gerakan stooge quartet and not just a trio.

But all four qualify for both meanings of stooge.

Cambridge Dictionary Online gave two meanings for “stooge”: “1. A person who is forced or paid by someone in authority to do an unpleasant or secret job for them; 2. An actor in a funny show in the theatre or on television whose job is to allow the main actor to make him or her look silly.”

When I issued my statement on Tuesday, I had meant the second meaning. But it is clear that the Gerakan quartet of stooges also qualify under the first meaning as well.

The Gerakan leadership accused the DAP as a failed party and myself as a failed leader but they failed to explain two things:

Firstly, why the Gerakan had fallen from its heyday when it claimed to be a national party which was the conscience of Barisan Nasional, winning 10 Parliamentary and 29 State Assembly seats in the 11th General Election in 2004 and helming the Penang State Government to the pathetic and abject “mosquito of mosquitoes” party role winning only one parliamentary and three state assembly seats (two of which are from Sabah) in the 13th General Election; and

Secondly, why Gerakan Penang State Chairman Teng Chang Yeow dare not return to Padang Kota State Assembly seat where he had been State Assemblyman for three terms in 1995, 1999 and 2004 to face DAP State Chairman Chow Kon Yeow to lead the Gerakan campaign to break the “egg” in the Penang State Assembly for two terms?

But the Gerakan quartet of stooges also fit into the first meaning of the word – as a stooge of UMNO/BN apart from being a stooge for UMNO/BN.

This is evident from the Gerakan quartet sucking up to the unprincipled and hypocritical UMNO/BN propaganda line of accusing me to Malays as No.1 anti-Malay and anti-Islam enemy in Malaysia, who dominates Pakatan Harapan and has made Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Datuk Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Mohamad Sabu as my puppets but the very opposite offensive to non-Malays, attacking me of being subservient and servile to Mahathir, Muhyiddin and Anwar.

Which is which?

But what should be most mortifying is that Gerakan and the other eleven non-UMNO Barisan Nasional parties are not able to exert the same amount of influence on the Prime Minister and the UMNO leadership which is exercised by Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s PAS without PAS formally becoming a member yet of Barisan Nasional.

Can the Gerakan quartet of stooges explain this new political phenomenon in Malaysia?