About 700 participants turned up for the first ever state Pakatan Rakyat convention in Penang that took place at Komtar at 8pm tonight.

lim guan eng Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng ( left ) officiated the event that was conducted in three languages: English, Malay and Tamil.

The convention chaired by PKR state secretary Abdul Halim Hussein passed five resolutions, relating to the current economy and housing, education and youth, inter-ethnic relations and religion, security, administration and politics respectively.

The resolutions were proposed by the Pakatan Women and Youth wings and Penang, Penang PAS, DAP and PKR.

In his speech, Lim said that the relationship between Pakatan leaders has become closer since the coalition took over the state leadership.

He said their governance of Penang through the C.A.T. (competent, accountable and transparent) principles has achieved much more for the state than BN or Umno had during the latter’s administration.

penang attack on anti isa forum 211110 01 “BN and Umno tried to divert attention from their weaknesses by using force, chaos and threats,” said Lim.

”Their extremist behaviour today (in disrupting the anti-ISA forum ) follows their actions on Nov 2 when they created trouble outside the state assembly,” he added.

Lim was referring to the recent state assembly when Umno Youth, Komtar traders, members from Parti Cinta Malaysia and Balik Pulau residents staged a noisy protest over several local issues.

BN's behaviour 'desperate'

Lim said the state remains firm and will not bow to the unruly and violent behaviour of BN leaders but will instead continue to defend the dignity of the rakyat.

pakatan-convention-penang He added that Pakatan did not fear the unruly displays by the BN because it only revealed the ruling coalition’s desperation and cowardice.

These acts, said Lim, only served to hide the fact that the BN is politically bankrupt and has lost the people’s support and

“It is this ill manners which has caused BN to lose badly in the 2008 general election,” said Lim, who is also DAP secretary general.

Lim, while speaking about relationships between the three coalition parties, also declared his support for PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim, who had come under severe criticism from within his party as the PKR elections unfolded over the past weeks.

The chief minister conveyed Anwar’s apologies for his absence due to the resumption of the sodomy trail tomorrow, and read out his note.

”We will go through much more challenges. There are dirty tactics by BN who tries to manipulate and cause friction between us. But if we remain strong, success will definitely be ours,” said Anwar in his message.

”There are no short cuts, only hard work that can save Malaysia and give democracy and wealth-sharing a fresh look,” he added.

Also present at this evening’s event were Japan consul general Tetsuro Kai and Indonesian consul general Chilman Arisman.