Introduction


Please allow me to begin by extending a very warm welcome and a very good evening to all Gerakan leaders, members, guests of honour and members of the press and media community.

This evening is another monumental event for Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia because we are celebrating our 35th Anniversary as a political party. The event is significant because we are not only celebrating our party’s anniversary but more so because we are celebrating the continual support given to us by the people, members and our constituents over the last 35 years to enable us to represent their interests and voices.

It is a celebration of Gerakan’s service and struggle with the people, for the people over the last three and half decades. Hence, on the behalf of the party, I would like to extend our heartiest thanks and appreciation of your trust and confidence in us. We will continue to serve for as long as we are still considered relevant and useful by the people.

For the efforts put forth to organise this event, I extend my sincerest compliment and appreciation to the 35th Anniversary dinner organisers lead by Saudara Lum Weng Keong, the party’s Deputy Secretary-General for a job well done.

The theme of the 35th Anniversary celebration, “Gerakan: Reinventing for the 21st Century” encapsulates our intention to realign and reinvent our party to better serve the people. The theme is most relevant and timely in the advent of knowledge era where strategic transformation and organisational nimbleness is a prerequisite of an organisation in the 21st century.

Main Text:

Saudara-Saudari, for any organisation - the 21st century is dominated by the ability to manage change and at the same time prevail from the process by emerging as a more dynamic organisation capable of accepting change as the core of its strategy.

We have a choice between accepting change or being forced to change by the external forces. The latter can be devastating because it signifies a lack of proper planning and readiness to face change. We have identified several critical challenges such as the emergence of a new geopolitical denominator which promotes unilateralism and might over diplomacy, the continued onslaught of globalisation and trade liberalization, global epidemic and disease control and other new regional conflicts which may potentially exacerbate the already weakened global economy.

On the local front, we have to also be more mindful of growing racial and religious intolerance, chauvinism and extremism capable of hijacking national issues and concoct them into unrecognizable agendas used to stir emotions and feelings.

While the area of social development to facilitate a successful integration of various racial communities into the larger society remains a challenge, we must be steadfast in our efforts to create a united and caring Bangsa Malaysia. It is only through real unity that we as a society can work together to face the challenges affecting us as a nation.

Other challenges include our economic competitiveness and attractiveness as an FDI destination. An important cornerstone of achieving high level of competitiveness is through the creation of a knowledge society. In our efforts to move up the manufacturing value chain, we need appropriate and adequate skills in high technical, scientific and management areas. This in turn requires a good education system that is based on merit and needs.

The challenges highlighted are not exhaustive. In fact, challenges will continue to emerge in different forms and level of complexities. This is one of the characteristics of the 21st century.

The Gerakan Formula

Bringing you the 21st century party, we must also be able to adopt the 21st century mindset and offer 21st century solutions to the people.

As a political party, Gerakan reiterates its commitment to strive for a just and equitable Malaysian society through our full adoption of the objectives spelled out by both the Vision 2020 and Bangsa Malaysia. We are committed to help realize the creation of a successful, innovative, confident, knowledgeable, dynamic, resourceful, caring, united and tolerant Malaysian race who are equally capable of accepting universal values of justice, peace, human rights and good governance.

At the international arena, Gerakan will continue with our efforts to help promote Malaysia and Malaysians as a smart, capable and innovative civil society whilst economically competent as a nation. We support the Barisan Nasional government foreign policies which are forward looking, consensus centric, diplomatic and at the same time in line with the stand of the international community especially in the areas of sovereignty, security and national integrity.

In our social agenda, Gerakan will continue with our efforts to promote the creation of a united, democratic, progressive and truly Bangsa Malaysia. We believe that a sense of unity and patriotism should be built on a common platform of shared values and interests. While these values and interests are results of a smart “win-win” partnership between all communities in our country. Hence, Gerakan sees its role in helping to mediate and smoothen this partnership between all communities established through the progressive platform of Barisan Nasional. Because of this commitment and role played by Gerakan, we must continue to speak and act as a non-racial party, focusing on the overall betterment of the society and nation.

In view of the economic challenges faced by the country, Gerakan is still confident of our economic fundamentals and the Barisan Nasional government’s prudent management and sound economic policies. On this aspect, we see ourselves contributing towards the creation of an innovative and dynamic knowledge society possesses high skills and scientific knowledge to help us achieving a developed nation status by year 2020. We hope to contribute positively by providing valuable inputs to help energize our education system and by offering innovative alternative education opportunities to the people.

On this note, Gerakan is proud to announce our commitment to establish an open university which will be named the Wawasan Open University to offer education opportunities to the people especially the working class to refresh their knowledge and skills in order to enhance their economic mobility and movement to other more relevant industries which require new skill sets. The open university concept which allows people without paper qualifications but with adequate experience and learning skills to enroll in formal academic courses is a very important facet of successful knowledge economies such as Finland, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States and others.

Closing

Saudara-Saudari, like all other grandiose dreams, in order to live the dreams and make them come true, we need proactive action plan and collective will, support and hard work from all party leaders and members.

Moving forward, especially in walking our talk to become a party of the 21st century which embodies the dynamism and energy of the knowledge era, we should strive to inculcate all the best practices and norms into the party. We have to endeavour of becoming a learning and intelligent party capable of using sophisticated technologies, driven by pragmatic idealism while at the same time able to maintain a caring environment in the party.

Thirty-five years ago, the party was established as an organisation to serve the people and represent their interests and aspirations. Today, thirty-five years later, we are still as committed if not more on this very important mission to serve the people.

Tomorrow morning’s ground breaking ceremony for Menara PGRM 2 which I feel deeply honoured to officiate - once completed in year 2006 will mark an important milestone for Gerakan and the people who rendered us their support. The Menara PGRM 2 will house the regional centre of the Wawasan Open University. The Gerakan initiated and sponsored university but to be managed by professionals and educationists is prove of our commitment to create a better Malaysia for all vis our assistance to create a knowledge society capable of competing with the best in the world.

With this, again I would like to thank all leaders, members, supporters and all who have contributed in any form and any role which helped to put Gerakan where it is today. Let us double our commitment and efforts in the spirit of SATU HATI to bring the party to greater heights and in turn to better serve the people.

Thank you.