KUALA LUMPUR: Gerakan, which suffered major losses during the recent general election, has launched a rebranding exercise in the hope of making it the party of choice for all Malaysians.

Acting president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, who launched the exercise during the party's 40th anniversary celebrations yesterday, said the rebranding would be based on three thrusts, which are:

> Voicing the party's ideology of advocating a Malaysian solution for issues;

> To rebuild, rebrand and re-empower the party at all levels to effectively serve and represent all Malaysians; and

> To win the people's hearts and mind to regain their support.

“In order to achieve these, we must consolidate, evaluate, motivate and rejuvenate the party,” Dr Koh said.

He said the party would execute the plan via eight strategies. They include broad plans to expand and consolidate membership while rebuilding the party in Penang.

“One of the ideas is to provide a more flexible structure by opening cyber branches so that Malaysians overseas can also participate in the party,” he said.

Dr Koh said Gerakan was at its most challenging crossroads following the dismal results of the March 8 general election.

“Most of us are dejected or demoralised but we must keep telling ourselves that we are down, but definitely not out,” he said.

After meeting with grassroots members over the past two months, Dr Koh said the picture was clear - that the members wanted Gerakan to continue. “A few may have gone astray. We can understand that. But we will keep fighting because we believe we are still relevant to the people.”

He added that Gerakan had to quickly understand the new political environment and that politics now had moved from being race-based to issues-based.

“That has exactly been what we have been fighting for but somehow we ended up on the other side.

“In this case, what is good for the country is negative for the party but it confirms that this is the way forward and we definitely have a role to play,” he added.