I read with interest and disgust as Gerakan national legal and human rights chief Baljit Singh tried to sidestep the issue of Penang becoming a federal territory made by BN’s own Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor by talking about Penang needing leaders who were born in Penang.

Gerakan is supposed to be a party that promotes non-sectarianism and inclusiveness among fellow Malaysians. The whole foundation of Gerakan was to counter the sectarianism of the then-Alliance Party (now Barisan Nasional). It seems that Gerakan is now a party without a purpose and would resort to any cheap excuse to protect their leaders in Umno.

May I remind Gerakan that non-sectarianism is to fight the age-old ‘divide and rule’ tactics of Barisan Nasional. Gerakan now seems to enjoy further dividing Malaysians to where they were born in Malaysia. This is not healthy to Malaysia as we are supposed to be fighting for unity among Malaysians and if places of birth are important, what’s next? Ancestry? Gender? Or were they born before or after Merdeka or Malaysia Day in 1957 and 1963 respectively?

Is Gerakan trying to out-Umno Umno? Stop dividing Malaysians! Gerakan should be ashamed of themselves for this!

You see, if you want to concentrate on what divides us for political mileage, there are a tonne of things you can pick on because a lot of those things, like a person’s place of birth, were not a choice a person got to make. This is really a below the belt cheap shot and Gerakan should know better than to go this route.

And please stop talking about Gerakan’s plan of ‘To love Penang is to save Penang’ as a distraction from the issue at hand, Gerakan had enough chances of ruining Penang over the years. One look at the dilapidated Komtar and the rubbish and mud-flat filled Gurney Drive before we took office in 2008 was enough evidence of Gerakan’s ‘love’ for Penang. It is definitely a love we can definitely do without.

Our administration has been on a crusade to rehabilitate Penang from the state of depression that Gerakan and Umno had driven this beautiful state into. Despite only getting around 0.0074 percent of the country’s national budget, Penang has risen like a phoenix and not only regained her standing in Malaysia, but has become better that it has ever been. Don’t believe me? Gerakan leaders should go out and look around more often.

The Pakatan Harapan government under Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng achieved all that in the face of a hostile BN federal Government. The Gerakan instead ran the administration into the ground despite being part of the BN coalition, how on Earth can anyone trust what Gerakan has to say again?

Let me remind Gerakan that it was your own national deputy Youth chief Andy Yong who said that, “Any idea or proposal for the benefit of the people should be encouraged. I do not see there is anything wrong with Ku Nan's proposal to have more systematic and better quality territories for city-dwellers.” He said this on the proposal for Penang to become a federal territory.

So if Gerakan would like to distance themselves from the above statement, I suggest an immediate apology not only from Andy Yong but Gerakan should persuade their own coalition’s federal territories minister to apologise as well. If Tengku Adnan brushes off Gerakan, then it once again proves that Umno does not care about Gerakan’s existence and Malaysians should reject Gerakan as they are nothing but a mere puppet to Umno.

CHRIS LEE CHUN KIT is a city councillor with the Penang Island City Council (Majlis Bandaraya Pulau Pinang) representing the DAP.