KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 — The three allies in the Pakatan Rakyat electoral pact are almost certain to take big step towards a more formal coalition when its leaders hold a key meeting tomorrow that will affirm their stand to work for all Malaysians.
It is understood that PKR’s de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang will head the leadership council for the alliance that began weeks before Election 2008.
The leadership council will be assisted by PKR’s Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, DAP vice-president Tan Seng Giaw and PAS vice-president Salahuddin Ayub at the secretariat level, said sources familiar with the meeting to be held at the Tropicana Golf Club in Petaling Jaya.
PAS deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa, PKR vice-president Azmin Ali and DAPSY chief Anthony Loke will form the policy unit for the council.
Sources said the meeting is critical for the alliance which has been wracked with controversies, differences and disputes especially in Selangor, Penang and Kedah which is led by chief ministers from each party.
“The top leaders will meet and will cement a closer working relationship apart from affirming they are working for all Malaysians,” a Pakatan source told The Malaysian Insider.
Pakatan has already announced that Anwar , Hadi and Kit Siang will start off discussions at the closed-door day-long meeting that will centre on the alliance’s main policies, successes and improvements to the pact.
The leaders will hold a press conference at 2pm at the venue, according to an invitation from PKR.
Pakatan won the three states and Perak while retaining Kelantan in the March 8 general election last year apart from winning 82 out of the 222-seat parliament, bloodying the nose of Barisan Nasional (BN) which has ruled Malaysia since Merdeka in 1957 when it was the Alliance.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who engineered a putsch to bring down the Perak Pakatan government when three lawmakers turned independent, has vowed to win back Selangor.
Kelantan remains strong under the leadership of PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat, who has helmed the state since 1990.
In Penang, PKR leaders feel that the state government led by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has been riding roughshod over them with the last straw being Guan Eng’s aide Jeff Ooi branding this month a PKR municipal councillor as extremist for being part of the missionary Jemaah Islah Malaysia (JIM). Ooi has since withdrawn the statement.
In Kedah, the sole DAP state councillor Lee Guan Aik last month declared himself independent early July in protest over the demolition of an illegal pig abattoir. Top Pakatan leaders resolved the issue that showed cracks in the alliance.
A similar issue cropped up last week when PAS Selangor chief Datuk Hassan Ali demanded that state councillor Ronnie Liu quit for getting the Shah Alam municipal council to return illegally-seized beer from a convenience store.
Hassan had wanted the municipal council enforce religious laws and prohibit shops in Muslim-majority areas from selling beer. Selangor mentri besar, PKR’s Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has asked shops to practise self-regulation to head off the crisis.
But a resurgent Umno, the dominant party in the 13-member BN, has been on the forefront in capitalising on these issues and attacking Pakatan leaders, calling Anwar a traitor and painting DAP as anti-Islam over comments made against banning beer sales in Selangor.
Umno Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin has called PAS to leave the alliance but Nik Aziz has affirmed the Islamist party will remain after recently castigating party leaders who suggested “unity talks” with their political rivals.
Najib, who took over as party president in March and succeeded Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as premier on April 3, has been working the ground and talking to various communities to support his “1 Malaysia” concept.
He has also freed up 27 economic sub-sectors and curbed the Foreign Investment Committee’s (FIC) powers to attract foreign and domestic investment, particularly from the economically-dominant Chinese community.
While he has been actively promoting 1 Malaysia, his party officials and party-controlled media have been rousing sentiments that Malays and Islam are under attack from other communities, writing weekend columns that slam the opposition, saying they are “seditious” especially when the Perak ruler chose a BN government to take over last February.
DAP national chairman Karpal Singh is facing a sedition charge while police are investigating DAPSY’s Loke for allegedly insulting the Perak royalty in a blog. He has denied being owner of the blog which has since been deleted.
No comments:
Post a Comment