LETTER | Syed Hamid Albar’s statement of labelling Umno’s partners in BN as a waste of time and money is extremely ungrateful and can be seen as selfish.

His remarks that BN component parties could not contribute at all were uncalled for and serves as a clear reminder why the people decided to vote out the entire coalition after 61 years in power in the first place.

Perhaps he is suffering from amnesia as it was parties like Gerakan, MCA, and MIC who stuck with Umno through thick and thin. It was us who canvassed the Chinese to support Umno candidates back in 1999 and it was us who decided to remain loyal to our partner Umno back in 1988 instead of abandoning BN.

Or maybe Syed Hamid was still holding a grudge when he was removed by Umno as Spad chairperson and replaced by Isa Samad.

What does Syed Hamid have to say to that? Does he even realise that Umno also lost a number of Felda and rural seats which were their “safe deposit” in the recent general election?

Gerakan, for example, did not attempt to join other parties despite losing Penang back in 2008 and instead continues to work hard and contribute to the BN cause.

We did not attempt to find a “kawan baru” in order to save our own skin all for the sake of the nation’s interest.

On the other hand, be reminded about leaders like Dr Mahathir, Anwar Ibrahim, Wan Azizah, Azmin Ali, Muhyiddin Yasin, Saifuddin Abdullah, Muhkriz Mahathir, Rafidah Aziz, Daim Zainuddin and Khairuddin Abu Hassan. If Umno is indeed flawless, why had these individuals left the party back in the day?

In contrast to Syed Hamid’s claims, Gerakan does not need to change its philosophy and vision as the “1Malaysia” concept by Najib Abdul Razak originated from Gerakan.

Even PKR took inspiration from us and the current Pakatan Harapan government is also trying to apply Gerakan’s multi-racial approach in practice.

Also, Syed Hamid saying the Harapan partners are working well seems to be against what his party had said in that Harapan was only a marriage of convenience and would never be able to cooperate among themselves.

Such a self-centred attitude displayed by leaders like him contributed to the downfall of BN.

Instead of pointing fingers and blaming others for wasting time and money, perhaps Syed Hamid should reflect on himself and advise some controversial leaders like himself to stay away from politics if BN wants to rebuild itself.

Umno and BN should be the ones adapting to the current times are what Gerakan has been envisioning all this while.

The writer is secretary-general, Gerakan.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.