Gerakan has been in the public spotlight for the past few weeks, for reasons which its leadership would not have wanted. From the injunction taken out by a Gerakan leader to prevent the sale of a controversial book criticising former party president Lim Keng Yaik and acting president Koh Tsu Koon, to the proposal among the Perak Gerakan delegates to pull out of the Barisan Nasional, to former Gerakan state exco Toh Kin Woon's endorsement of Anwar's candidacy in Permatang Pauh and his subsequent resignation from Gerakan – it has not been a good couple of weeks for the party that once controlled Penang (for 38 years since 1969).

Even the one potential bright spot, the debate between Koh and the current Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng did not produce a consensus in favour of the former.