(1) I would like to warmly welcome all the distinguished guests especially our beloved National President and Central Party Leaders and all the delegates, observers and friends from the mass media to today’s Penang Party Gerakan State Delegates Conference. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the National President and Central Leaders for attending our conference even though they are very, very busy. We would also like to congratulate our National President who has been appointed Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of National Unity and Performance Management.

(2) I am very glad to see that the attendance of today’s conference is very good which shows that Party members from rank and file are very loyal and stand steadfastly behind the Party. I would like to say a big “Thank You” to all of you my dear Saudara and Saudari.

(3) Your support through your statements and actions in the past have given the Party leadership of Penang and the Central a big boost to work even harder in this very challenging time.

(4) Parti Gerakan was formed about 40 years ago with the ideology of building a fair and just society for all Malaysians through a multi racial and non-racial approach. Therefore when we celebrated our Party 30th Anniversary, 10 years ago our slogan was “Satu Hati, Satu Negara, Satu Wawasan” and the slogan has been used as the basis by our new Prime Minister through the 1 Malaysia concept as his new policy to lead the country.

(5) This shows that our Party’s ideology is futuristic and is suitable for all Malaysians at all times regardless of race, gender, age and social economic background.

(6) After the State Party elections last year, the State leaders have focused on reuniting members from the rank and file and identifying active and young members, planning and carrying out political training programmes and seminars to upgrade the political skills and political awareness among the younger leaders. We have also set up a website http://www.gerakan4u.com to publicize the Party and to interact with the people in Penang.

(7) We have also appointed co-ordinators in our traditional contested constituencies. The co-ordinators have started working actively in their respective areas in order to serve the people.

(8) We are very happy and encouraged by the announcement & measures taken by our new Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib since he took over office on April 03, this year. These measures included the emphasis on a multi-racial society with the 1 Malaysia concept, liberalisation of trade and economy, comprehensively looking into amending the ISA so that it would not be abused, and targeting on the 6 National Key Results Area (NKRA) to monitor 6 important issues affecting the country. All these measures will need the understanding and cooperation from all Parties and all Malaysians in order to succeed and see results. One very glaring weakness in achieving the 1 Malaysia concept is the racial imbalance in the civil service. We would like to urge the Federal Government to look into this problem and to set a time frame to correct this racial imbalance.

(9) Similarly there is also racial imbalance in the Private/Corporate sector. We propose that the Federal Government provide incentives for the private sector to encourage real and meaningful Bumiputra participation. We also urge the private/corporate sector to proactively assist and identify potential Bumiputra entrepreneurs to team up in business ventures in order to correct the racial imbalance in the private commercial sector. This will make 1 Malaysia concept more meaningful and it will act as catalyst for national Unity and racial intergration.

(10) We urge Dato’ Seri Najib to honour the promise made by the previous Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Badawi on the 3 Mega projects in Penang, namely Second Bridge, Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) and Monorail for Penang as a new year Ang Pow for Penang 2 years ago. These projects are vital to ensure the continuous growth of Penang and especially as Penang has been identified as the logistic hub of NCER. We also would like to remind the State Government led by Mr. Lim Guan Eng’s to immediately put aside political differences and work closely with the Federal Government to realize all development projects in the State.

(11) The Chief Minister should immediately prepare short term, medium term and long term programmes for Penang instead of concentrating on publicity and implementing populist programmes just to get votes for the next election.

(12) Lastly, I would like to urge all Gerakan rank and file to be humble and to be sincere and understand the pulse of the people and serve them according to their aspirations with the highest integrity. This is the only way to get back the people’s confidence and support. Thank you.