By Charlie Rudai - Free Malaysia Today,KOTA KINABALU: Pakatan Rakyat will treat Sabah as an equal partner unlike the Barisan Nasional which is taking the state for granted as a mere fixed deposit.
Two young guns of PKR -- Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar and Seri Setia Assemblyman Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad -- also assured that despite coming from Peninsular Malaysia, the Pakatan leaders are not here “to order Sabahans around”.
Nurul Izzah said Pakatan has so much to learn from the people of Sabah for their ability to live in harmony together although they are of different races and religions.
“We remain in admiration of Sabah's racial integration and we have a lot to learn from Sabah and Sarawak. I think this is something that should not be underestimated.
“People in Sabah are Sabahans first and I think this is something that Malaysians as a whole should emulate,” said Nurul Izzah after a dinner gathering with Sabah PKR leaders organised by its Putatan division here last night.
According to Nurul Izzah, she and Nik Nazmi came to Sabah to lend support to PKR Sabah, as they represent the voice of the new generation of PKR leaders who would do their best to ensure the opposition wins in the next general election.
She said they would also be having small-scale meetings with young professionals in Sabah during their stay here.
Also known as Puteri Reformasi (reformation princess), Nurul Izzah said among the issues that PKR would be struggling for the people in Sabah was to ensure the state’s own natural resources are used to improve the quality of their life.
“The beauty and richness of the country cannot be plundered by a few robber barons... everyone must join in the fight to save Sabah and ensure the people here take what is rightly theirs,” she said.
“This is my first trip to Sabah and it is a learning process for me... I have heard a lot of good things about how Sabah residents could live in harmony much better than we do in the peninsula,” said
A mature party
Nik Nazmi, who is also the political secretary to Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim.
He said that PKR viewed Sabah and Sarawak differently because it has much to learn from the people in these two states.
At the same time, he said PKR would want to treat them as genuine partners in nation-building “and not just take them for granted as fixed deposit like the BN does”.
Nik Nazmi said PKR was facing many challenges and may have teething problems but it also wanted to show that it is a mature party, with many potential young leaders like Nurul Izzah, the daughter of PKR de facto leader, Anwar Ibrahim.
He added that the record in the peninsula showed that those who continued to remain loyal to the party were the young leaders.
“We want to show this is a party for the future, a party that fights for all, a truly Malaysian party where everyone can be genuine members,” he said.
He also said the reason PKR held its national congress, which coincided with the Kaamatan Festival in Sabah and Gawai in Sarawak, was that the party had to fulfil the requirement of its constitution. It must hold its congress within 18 months from the previous one, which was in December 2008.
“We try to find the right time but with so many by-elections and so many different things cropping up, we had to hold it [national congress] on that date available to us,” he said.
“It is easy if you are a party representing only one race like Umno – it will avoid holding its general assembly during Hari Raya; likewise, the MCA will not hold its assembly during Chinese New Year. But PKR represents all Malaysians and so we have festivals all-year round... we have Wesak, Gawai and Kaamatan but we had to hold our congress [on that chosen date] because of the requirements of the constitution,” he said. (PKR's sixth three-day national congress began on May 28.)
Nurul Izzah said the one lesson that could be learnt from the last general election was that there was no straight fight between Pakatan and BN in Sabah.
“So this is something we must learn to ensure that in any general election only one Pakatan candidate will contest against BN in all constituencies,” she said.
PKR vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan, who was also present, said the party was looking at a strategy to get all the opposition parties into Pakatan.
“If we can do that, then we can have a one-to-one [fight with the BN] and I think this is possible,” he said.
Cohesive unit
Nurul Izzah said that Pakatan component partners -- DAP, PAS and PKR -- were becoming a very cohesive unit as shown in the recent Sibu by-election.
“PAS especially went on a house-to-house campaign, which has never been done previously. There has been a level of acceptance of Pakatan as a force, so all we need is to strengthen it to prepare for the next general election,” she said.
Earlier, in her speech, Nurul Izzah said it was clear now that PKR through PKR Sabah is a party that fights for all Malaysians.
“Our party was attacked relentlessly... when Anwar was jailed, PKR was accused of fighting only for Anwar and had neglected Sabah and Sarawak,” she said.
She also said that PKR should take stock of its position and not keep pointing the fingers at BN for the defection of its MPs.
“It is easy to keep on blaming the BN... we are not 100% perfect ourselves… we must take stock [of our position,” she added.
Nonetheless, Nurul Izzah said she had seen with her own eyes in Parliament how (opposition) MPs were being induced with money.
“I say if you want to leave, you can leave... but [looking ahead] we have to close ranks and foster the spirit of togetherness”.
Nurul Izzah, who defeated Umno Wanita chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil in the last election, said together with Nik Nazmi they believed it was time for the younger generation to take the lead in party.
“We thank the senior leaders for willingly giving way to us because nobody will be able to hold on to power forever, including the BN,” she said.
She said it was time for the people in Sabah to know that PKR is party that fights for the rights of all Malaysians.
“There is no question of 'parti semenanjung' [peninsular party]... this is the party that struggles for all the people in Sabah, Sarawak and the Peninsula,” she added.
Nurul Izzah said Keadilan members must remain committed in facing the challenges ahead.
She added that there is no place for arrogant leaders who don't care about the views of the rakyat.
Also present at the function were PKR Sabah liaison chief, Ahmad Thamrin Jaini, and PKR Putatan division chief, Awang Ahmad Shah.
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