As this is my first article for this website and for Gerakan, I feel that it would be appropriate if I took this opportunity to give you ‘the’ reader a first hand guide of my experience in a political party, I hope this will prepare you, if you have had any inclinations of joining a political party, what to expect when you become a member. I must state at the outset and be honest with you, in that from conversations with many of my friends who are members of other political parties, that the scenario and experience are not very different from one party to another.

When I first made the decision to join a political party in the Barisan Nasional, after having been associated with the alternative in Malaysia for the last 18 years, I shopped around for a party whose ideology I could most identify with. I say ‘shop’ because that is what political parties do, they sell an ideology, a belief, A HOPE.

Ever since I was a little boy, I have been fortunate to have to never rely on my ethnicity for anything, and neither have I had any adverse accident with any form of ethnic intolerance that was beyond the norm, as in what is routine in any country anywhere in the world.

I grew up in different environments having grown up an orphan, I moved from one family to another with relative ease, both Chinese and Indian, some of my cousins having married outside their racial boundaries. I was fortunate to never have had to be pressured into any particular ethnic makeup. Having never had to exhibit a preference for any particular race, religion or language I grew up a child of the universe so to speak. I believe in the universality of the person. And I was fiercely proud to be Malaysian, the only IDENTITY that really made any sense to me.

What is it about Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia that attracted me? The paragraph below sums up its ideology taken from its official website.

“Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, Parti Gerakan for short, has since its founding in 1968, been committed to the pursuit of a non-ethnic approach as the basis of its political struggle, be it in politics, economics, education and culture. Parti Gerakan has never relented, and will never relent, in our struggle for a truly Malaysian non-racial approach towards the attainment of a united, secular and socially just Malaysia, though the forms and modes of struggle can vary according to changing circumstances. This was the line of our party’s founding fathers. It remains our line to-day. It will be our line tomorrow. This consistency and steadfastness in our party’s commitment to the non-ethnic approach are premised on the belief that there is a large section of our society whose political consciousness is Malaysian, and want political representation as Malaysians”.

In short, I was attracted to it because there are no restrictions institutionalized in its ideology on any Malaysian who wants to be part of its struggle. It is a multi-racial party for a multiracial Malaysia. Of course I have noticed that in reality the party is by and large mono-ethnic and the party leadership takes great pains to say that this is not really of much consequence, as what is more important is that the party takes a non-racial approach in all its positions and struggles.

As my initial article submitted was long, I have divided it into two parts. This is just Part 1 of my article, next in Part 2, I will talk about Syed Hussien. Why do I mention Syed Hussien, it is because Gentlemen like him are not known to compromise the need to be multiracial in both form and substance. I will also elaborate on my experiences in the party and the challenges faced.

by Stephen Doss
Gerakan4u.com's Invited Columnist