Gerakan boss ‘forced’ out by Umno | Free Malaysia Today

Gerakan boss ‘forced’ out by Umno

Tarani Palani | November 17, 2011-FMT

Sympathising with his predecessor, Lim Guan Eng claims that Koh Tsu Koon is the victim of an orchestrated campaign by Umno.

UPDATED

KUALA LUMPUR: Umno has forced Gerakan president Koh Tsu Koon not to contest in the next general election, said Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today.

Expressing sympathy towards his predecessor, the DAP leader said: “It is an orchestrated campaign to remove him and they (Barisan Nasional and Umno) have succeeded.”

“What Umno wants Umno gets,” he told reporters in the Parliament lobby.

Lim said Koh was forced to leave as it was obvious that the latter still had intentions to contest in the coming elections as Koh retained his other positions as a federal minister and party president.

“I feel sympathy for him because he has been pushed out by Umno. It is clearly ‘mission accomplished’ for Umno because they don’t want him,” he added.

The embattled Gerakan president announced this morning that he would not contest in the upcoming elections.

He would however retain his other positions as minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Gerakan president and Penang BN chairman.

‘He deserves a second chance’

Under Koh’s leadership, Penang fell to the opposition in the 2008 general election and Gerakan suffered heavy losses, including its president being vanquished by newcomer P Ramasamy.

However, Lim felt that the veteran politician, who had come under pressure to quit, should be given a second chance.

“Winning and losing is common in elections, he should be given a second chance to fight. He should be given a chance to live to fight another day but they (BN and Umno) are not even allowing him to live,” said the Bagan MP.

The DAP secretary-general pointed out that the bigwigs in his party, like his father Kit Siang and national chairperson Karpal Singh, had also lost in elections before.

“When (Koh) said (in the recent Gerakan general assembly) that he will make an announcement soon, he was hounded on when he will make the announcement,

“I remember one newspaper (in their performance evaluation of Koh) gave him a ‘F’ for flip-flopping… even if he is my opponent, I thought that was pretty harsh,” he said.


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