PKR likely unscathed in polls turmoil, survey shows

By Yow Hong Chieh

The media spotlight on PKR’s fractious party election appears to have had little effect on public opinion, according to the latest poll of voters in peninsular Malaysia.
The results of the poll suggests that Malaysians are undecided if media reports accurately reflected the party’s woes.

Thirty-four per cent of those surveyed by the independent Merdeka Center earlier this month believed unfavourable reports were a true reflection of the opposition party’s troubles.

But another 34 per cent of voters surveyed said the reports were exaggerated. The remaining 32 per cent said they were not sure.

Malays were the most evenly split, with 37 per cent believing the reports accurate compared to 36 per cent who said news of PKR’s “internal conflicts” had been played up.

Indians were more likely to believe the reports overemphasised the party’s problems.

Fourty-six per cent of the Indians surveyed said the reports were exaggerations versus 32 per cent who thought otherwise.

In contrast, the Chinese were the least likely to believe stories of PKR’s woes were being sensationalised.

Only 26 per cent said they thought the stories overblown, while 31 per cent said the stories were accurate.

The Chinese, however, were also the most ambivalent, with 43 per cent unsure if the reports were truthful or not.

The poll was conducted in the first two weeks of this month following PKR’s first ever direct election, which was marred by low voter turnout, allegations of fraud and the acrimonious exit of then-Federal Territories PKR chief Datuk Zaid Ibrahim.

Deputy presidential contender Zaid quit PKR claiming the party had failed to uphold democratic principles.

This month’s poll mirrors the results of a mid-term survey on Pakatan Rakyat (PR) performance in Selangor, where PKR controls nine out of 22 parliamentary seats, the most of any party.

The mid-term survey suggested that PR will be able to defend Selangor in the next general election.

The PR government there scored the highest with the Indian community, followed by Malays and then the Chinese.

Selangor Mentri Besar and former Selangor PKR chief Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, however, scored the lowest among Malays, with 38 per cent saying they were not confident in his leadership, compared to 14 and 17 per cent of the Chinese and Indians, respectively.

Zaid, take a break and refocus your efforts

By Aloysius Pinto

Zaid should take a break from party politics and focus on developing the necessary tools and mechanisms to put in place a shadow cabinet based on the Pakatan Rakyat policy framework.

It should provide guidelines and directions on how to develop the various policies, directions and action plans for all the different areas highlighted in the framework.

The numerous offers of expertise by civil society, which includes NGOs, professionals, academicians and concerned citizens should be tapped to form the shadow cabinet.

It is not important at this time to identify the shadow cabinet ministers. He must harness the discontent of civil society to come up with action plans to deliver election promises.

Zaid is the appropriate person to lead, organise and moderate the various sessions that needs to be organised for shadow cabinet ministries. If Zaid is not doing this, who else?

Yes, Zaid should take a break from party politics and just focus on bringing the various stakeholders through forums, seminars, dialogues and even a convention.

Enormous talents are willing to provide their expertise so that Pakatan not only retains control of the four states, but also instil confidence in the rakyat that it is ready for Putrajaya.

Otherwise Zaid, don’t bother about party politics at all.

There are already too many politicians around. In fact, more than necessary, that’s why the jostling for positions!

Be a statesman Zaid and lead this work that needs to be done to prepare Pakatan to govern the nation.

PKR must change

The upcoming Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) National Congress to commence starting from tomorrow until 30 May at the Trade Centre in Kota Bahru, Kelantan will be watched by all supporters of Pakatan Rakyat.

During the congress, the PKR leadership must come up with a firm and concrete solution to stem out its defection sickness as well as to shed off its "ex-Umno" image in order to become a formidable opposition party in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

Since after the general elections, PKR has been frequently rocked by series of resignations and defections of its members of parliament and state assemblymen which saw the numbers of its seat in the parliament being reduced to 25 as compared to the previous outstanding number.

The leaders of PKR must be brave enough to come up strongly against opportunist in its party and to get rid of those "Umno characteristic" leaders and members in order not to jeopardize its image and reputation again in the next general election.

Besides, PKR leaders must also stop all its favoritism in its election candidate selection and all its potential candidates ought to be filter and censored as careful as possible in order to avoid another round of defections.

If defections in PKR continues, it is feared that its supporters and voters will not be able to put their trust on its candidates anymore in the next general election.

So, PKR you need to act fast.

PKR's Mansor won with 5,558 majority

Mansor Othman is on the way to become Penang's new Deputy Chief Minister after winning Penanti by bagging 6,052 votes. His nearest rival is a former Gerakan divisional leader Nai Khan, 494 votes, followed by Aminah, 392, and Kamarul, 56.

All the three independent candidates lost their deposits. Congratulations Mansor on your victory.

Fairus resigns as Penanti assemblyman; by-election imminent

Former Penang deputy chief minister Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin yesterday resigned as Penanti state assemblyman, confirming weeks of speculation that a by-election for the Penanti state seat was likely.

In a press statement, Mohammad Fairus, 33, said he took this step to resign as a state representative to protect the interest of his party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).

The politician tendered his resignation as DCM I and state executive councillor effective April 8 and since then, PKR has yet to name a replacement.

DAP reaffirms support for Pakatan Rakyat to establish an alternative government that is democratic, people-centric and with an ethical leadership base

DAP's commitment towards a multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural Malaysia is not only an article of faith but a deep conviction in Bangsa Malaysia. DAP is inclusive of all races and religions. We represent the interests and fight for the rights every Malaysian.

In the effort of being representative of all Malaysians, including both Malays and non-Malays, the party is willing to undertake a transformational process that may be painful but necessary.

We have no alternative but to grow without compromising our basic principles.

DAP reaffirms support for Pakatan Rakyat(PR) to establish an alternative government that is democratic, people-centric and with an ethical leadership based on the 5 principles of freedom, justice, truth, social welfare and universal moral values. In this regard the DAP supports PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the Parliamentary Opposition Leader and will remain so as no single leader has ever questioned this during internal meetings whether at the highest levels or otherwise.

The Pakatan Rakyat leadership has clearly endorsed a position that no individual party policy can be PR policy unless it is fully approved unanimously by all three parties. DAP's position on hudud and Islamic state is crystal clear and regardless of whatever support for both hudud and the establishment of an Islamic State, whether from PAS or PKR, this will not be PR policy as long as DAP does not agree to it.

Similarly DAP's leadership has been consistently urging the government to enact an anti-hopping law even before the Perak crisis, and we have expressed support of our 28 MPs. As BN does not have a 2/3 parliamentary majority, the support of DAP's 28 MPs will be required to effect any constitutional amendment for such an anti-hopping laws.

As a democratic party, DAP policies can be changed in accordance with the wishes of its members. However until today there has been no requests to question or disturb the basic framework of co-operation between the 3 parties of DAP, PAS and PKR that makes up PR.

Perak Sultan urged to allow dissolution of state assembly

In the name of the people and in order to seek a fresh mandate from the people, we would like to urge the Sultan of Perak to approve the Mentri Besar’s proposal for the dissolution of the state assembly given to the fact that the Pakatan Rakyat state government balance of power has been affected following the Umno’s corruption and money politics in enticing the PKR duo to defect.

The Sultan of Perak must also understand that Umno is trying to launch a coup to retake the state government by an illegal means that is corruption and money politics. In order to disallow such an immoral move from being materialized by Umno, the Sultan must return the mandate to the people instead of allowing corruption and money politics takes its place.

We must not allow Umno to terrorize the Perak state with its corrupt practice and immoralities. The people of Perak should be given an opportunity to make their stand on this matter with their votes. Please allow democracy to take place.

Perak PKR duo confirmed defecting to Umno

The much awaited answer of the two Perak PKR state executive councilors status are still hanging and so far one had confirmed leaving the party to go over to Umno. What about the other guy? There’s still no news on him as he is still missing.

This situation leaves the Perak state government in-balance due to its majority decreasing and Umno got its number increased instead should the other decides to join Umno as well.

A confirmed source had also mentioned that Umno leaders promised via its dominated federal government to reverse the corruption charges onto the PKR duo if they agree to leave PKR and join Umno.

If the PKR duo who is currently facing corruption charges on a proposed housing development, decides to cleanse themselves by joining Umno who promised to drop the charges, the Perak Pakatan Rakyat leadership will have no other choice but to seek a new mandate from the people by calling for a fresh state election as soon as possible.

With the departure of the PKR duo, the Perak Pakatan Rakyat could not function properly as all its administration activities will come into blockade with Umno and BN current have an increase bargaining power with the two crossovers. That means Umno and BN will block whatever implementation the state government wishes to carry out in order to continue destabilizing the administration and grab the state powers by all means.

As such, no other choice. The Perak Pakatan Rakyat must call for a fresh election to seek a fresh mandate from the people.

Stop arguing in public, PR leaders told

We had seen and heard some arguments and bickerings amongst leaders of Pakatan Rakyat recently which does not reflect the maturity of its leaders.

The most recent ones were between Selangor DAP state assemblyman and house speaker Teng Chang Khim and DAP MPs Charles Santiago (Klang) and Lim Lip Eng (Segambut), as well as Kapar MP S.Manikavasagam with the state PKR leadership over his disappointment on certain issues related to the Indian community.

All these issues can be brought to the top leadership and discussed in a proper manner instead of bickering over them in the public especially via BN controlled medias and newspapers which will make things worst and create a mere negative impression on the new Pakatan Rakyat state governments. Do not let the BN take advantage on all these.

If you guys keep on harping on some issues in public, the BN would take this opportunity to attack us and split us up even worse via their medias and presses.

And the same also goes to PAS, please respect your fellow Pakatan Rakyat parties and not making some statement or delivering some policies in public that are against the Pakatan Rakyat's spirit of cooperation.

Anwar’s victory with an increased majority

Wednesday, 27 August 2008

PKR advisor, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim won the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat yesterday which marks his return to parliament after a forced absence of about ten years.In the yesterday’s by-election, Anwar garnered 31,195 votes defeating his opponents, Arif Shah of BN who got 15,524 votes and Hanafi Hamat of AKIM got only 92 votes.

Anwar also won with an increased majority of 15671 votes, while his wife and PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail had previously won the seat with a majority of 13,338 votes during the 8 March general elections.The significant victory by the Pakatan Rakyat in Permatang Pauh also confirmed that the voices of change are still strong and the people wanted Pakatan Rakyat to continue their role in the parliament as well as in the Penang state.

Meanwhile, DAP Secretary-General and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the win was a huge victory for the whole nation and an impetus for the Penang state government.Guan Eng also said that the victory shows that the people wanted the process of transformation to a new Malaysia to continue under Pakatan Rakyat’s guidance.

Inaccurate News Reports

Saturday, 23 August 2008

Ever since the start up of the Permatang Pauh by-election events, we could see the mainstream medias mainly the Star, Straits Times, Berita Harian, Utusan Malaysia, RTM, TV3 and Bernama are giving their maximum reports openly supporting the BN candidate and giving its advantage views inaccurately and one-sided.Reports on PKR candidate Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim are little or sometimes unseen in certain coverage.

Sometimes inaccurate reports were also released to discredit the Pakatan Rakyat by showing news of people being beaten up by PKR supporters, etc. No reports were highlight on PKR supporters being beaten up by BN workers or supporters and these reflects an unfair and one-sided coverage in order to discredit one party and give advantage to another.Anyway, we are delighted that the people are now politically matured to judge between the wrongs and the rights and we hope their will cast their decisions into the ballot boxes on 26 August 2008 to show their will for change is strong.

DAP fully support Anwar's candidacy

Friday, 1 August 2008

Following the resignation of PKR President Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Ismail from her parliamentary seat in Permatang Pauh to pave way for her husband to seek for a come back to the parliament, the DAP would like to affirm our fullest support to his bid to return as a parliamentarian.

With the nomination and by-election dates which will be announce soon, DAP will do its very best as a coalition partner of Pakatan Rakyat, to ensure Datuk Seri Anwar's victory.DAP also condemn any possibilities by the Barisan Nasional government to seek an arrest warrant onto Datuk Seri Anwar in order to block him from seeking as a candidate to the by-election and should such measures are carried out, it will be unjust and dictatorial.

DAP would also look forward towards a fair and a just by-election for Datuk Seri Anwar's participation and any attempts to prevent him from doing so will be seen as a crime against democracy and humanity.

DAP supports Anwar's fight for justice

Wednesday, 2 July 2008

Penang Chief Minister and DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng said DAP will stand by PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in his quest for justice following a recent accusation of sodomy reported against him by his former aide.DAP as member of the Pakatan Rakyat will fully support its coalition partner to fight against injustice made on Datuk Seri Anwar, believed to be engineered by certain parties in the Barisan Nasional and Umno.

Meanwhile, Bagan Jermal DAP Secretary Viktor Wong also urge the police to act in a professional manner in their investigation to ensure justice is done. As long as nothing is proven, Datuk Seri Anwar is innocent. Wong also urge the ACA to conduct its own probe on the inspector-general of police and the attorney-general on their possible role in undermining Datuk Seri Anwar's reputation in 1998. Those doubts mounted in 1998 need to be answered and the general public has every right to know, Wong added.