PKR girds for battle following weekend conclave
Some 130 members of the PKR’s upper crust yesterday completed a weekend of intensive preparations for the 13th General Election with attendance at a public rally that served as a potent reminder of the party’s origins which its supremo emphasised at their conclave.
Some 130 members of the PKR’s upper crust yesterday completed a weekend of intensive preparations for the 13th General Election with attendance at a public rally that served as a potent reminder of the party’s origins which its supremo emphasised at their conclave.
Originally scheduled to have been held in Lumut, the venue for the meeting was switched to Kuantan to make it easier for PKR leaders from all over the country to attend the anti-Lynas gathering on Sunday morning.
In the end, the conclave and public gathering dovetailed to remind the PKR leadership of its reformist origins and the necessity, as party supremo Anwar Ibrahim emphasised in an impassioned address, to keep to the ground.
“He reminded us of the necessity to use the alternative media to reach the people, but not to use that instrument as a substitute to pump the flesh and keep our ears to the ground,” said a member of the supreme council, who immediately left for a northern state to speak at a ceramah after the flurry of meetings and public rally, a schedule whose tightness was reflective of the party’s battle-ready mode.
The party conclave, which was attended by its elected representatives, members of the supreme council, and assorted division heads, devoted a significant amount of time to the subject of how to detect electoral fraud.
“Much time was spent on how to vet the electoral roll and to guard against and detect fraud,” said another attendee.
“It was quite clear that a high state of readiness is mandated by the party as we expect the coming election to be rife with irregularities,” said the same delegate.
No indication of party’s candidates
Another aspect of the conclave dwelt on how the party’s elected representatives in states controlled by Pakatan Rakyat governments could get the leadership to respond to urgent concerns of constituents of seats that had returned PKR legislators.
Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim and Penang’s Deputy Chief Minister Mansor Othman were busy during this session supplying the dope on what they could do to help these concerns and how PKR reps in particular and Pakatan ones in general could sue for their assistance.
However, there was no indication on the list of the party’s candidates, a matter that was not being couched in secrecy so much as discretion, given its recent past where PKR had suffered defections from its ranks and dissension in its folds from clashing individual ambitions.
That was why supremo Anwar’s clarion call to the leadership never to forget the party’s reformist origins was a salutary reminder that the privileges and perquisites of elected office must not be a barrier between the elected brass and its support base.
“He was at pains to remind leaders that if we cannot bring change to the people and country, then we would not be what we should be - a party of reform in quest of national salvation,” said a leader newly introduced and set for upward mobility.
“In other words, Anwar was saying that we have to be the change we are fighting for,” said the same leader.
Emergency motion on Lynas
There could be no more powerful emblem of the party supremo’s reminder to be connected to public concerns that the decision to make common cause with the anti-Lynas gathering yesterday morning in Kuantan.
A multi-racial crowd estimated to be 15,000 strong, with a large proportion composed of youthful people, had converged in the Pahang state capital by mid-morning to protest the sitting of a rare earth plant in the state.
PKR’s decision to ally the full cohort of its leadership in solidarity with the public protest, which was rousing in its size and its multi-racialism, provided a fitting coda to the party’s pre-election conclave and the reminder of its formative beginnings.
PKR vice-president and Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh’s long-standing involvement and leadership of the anti-Lynas movement helped flag the party’s origins and its agenda of populist reform.
She would be the appropriate MP to move the emergency motion against the rare earth plant when Parliament opens what is likely to be its final session before national polls.
Related stories
Nurul: Dad wouldn't be the only one with a black eye
