Gerakan chief Mah Siew Keong may be enjoying his new lease of life having rescued his party from the precipice of political oblivion and celebrating his victory as securing his position as party president in a way that his predecessor Koh Tsu Koon couldn't, but he can only fool the Teluk Intan old generation voters who plumped for him. Not the rest of us.
 
His campaign has brought nothing but the same old tricks and devices BN is notorious for, and as far as he himself is concerned, has offered nothing new or fresh to signify any new dawn for the party.
 
He kept mostly silent on the racism and dirty tactics that ran amok in his campaign, and elsewhere in national politics. He used the same tired arguments of development for Teluk Intan that only the uneducated would buy, those who couldn't connect the dots between seven years of BN rule in Teluk Intan with no development, and asking to vote for the same.
 
He stood out like a puppet on a string while Umno danced around him with their shenanigans, doing nothing, which to an informed citizen would hardly seem a good foundation for a member of parliament.
 
He offered absolutely no stand on national issues, which means his role when parliament begins would be to occupy his seat on the BN side when the ayes and nays are counted.
 
So how does this reflect on a new dawn for Gerakan, a party that time and again has proven to be a eunuch in the midst of his Umno master, and a midget next to the fumbling MCA?
 
At least DAP candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud injected fresh air into the political scene with her maiden attempt. Naive, maybe, but she definitely exudes the promise of a new dawn, compared to Mah.
 
And as for principles, I would definitely rate Dyana's mother Yammy Samat as one with more mettle than Mah. At least when attacked she offered to resign from Perkasa.
 
Mah could have learned from her - when the dirty tactics ran amok in his campaign, he could have put his foot down and said to his BN partners, "enough nonsense, or I withdraw".
 
That surely would have given him control of his own campaign. But alas, the Gerakan president showed no such mettle, and instead shrunk like they always do, into the shadows looking away with the "don't blame me, it's not my fault" sheepish look.
 
He claimed he wanted a clean campaign, but did nothing to ensure it was so. As some have pointed out, it was not his contest at all, he was just the chess piece.
 
So enjoy your ministership and glory, I am sure the Teluk Intan voters who didn't return to vote will feel the sting, and make it up in GE14.