Jonson's last roll of the political dice

By Stephanie Sta Maria - Free Malaysia Today

PETALING JAYA: Former PKR communications director Jonson Chong has decided to cast the dice one last time. And if the outcome is not in his favour, he will put a full-stop to politics.

Chong's reformist path unfolded in 1999 when he joined the now defunct Parti Rakyat Malaysia. Four years after PKR was launched, his political career showed signs of taking off when he was appointed Youth strategy director.

A year later, he moved up the ladder to assume the post of deputy secretary-general and subsequently that of communications director, which he held for another year before handing it over to Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.

When the party elections came around, Chong showed no interest in contesting for any posts but had “half-jokingly” challenged his followers on Twitter to nominate him for vice-presidency.

“I told them them that if they nominated me, I would be (deputy presidential aspirant) Zaid (Ibrahim's) running mate,” he told FMT. “And if those nominations came from Gombak, Batu, Petaling Jaya Selatan or Kelana Jaya, I would accept them.”

None of those four divisions threw their support behind him. Instead, his two nominations came from Sabah's Putatan and Labuan divisions.

“I have no idea why they nominated me,” he said. “Maybe the supporters wanted to give me a chance or maybe mine was the only name recognised on the list. Maybe (vice-president) Jeffrey (Kitingan) likes me. I really don't know.”

Chong's initial reaction was to let it pass. He, however, changed his mind after recognising an opportunity for him to spell out the issues on which the election is based.

“If I win I'll give my best to the party in terms of speaking my mind, speaking the truth and speaking for justice,” he promised. “And if I lose – which I expect – I'll accept the members' decision and wish the new leadership well. And then I'll probably leave the party.”

“This should not be construed as a lack of loyalty but an acceptance of the fact that I have been in politics for more than 10 years. Maybe this is not the best vehicle for me to do the kind of good that I want to do.”

Here are excerpts from the interview:

On gaps within the party

Putrajaya is not the end but the means to the end. And the end is justice, proper economic management, better education policies and so forth. PKR must have what it takes to get to the starting point and that starting point was not 2008. People think that we won in 2008 but we didn't. BN lost.

In order to get to Putrajaya, we need to hit the ground running with top-notch leaders, technocrats and captains of industries. We need to identify professional and independent people to lead the judiciary, police force and the army. Surely we don't expect the current crop of leaders in all these institutions to follow the orders of a new government. But even before that, we must have the right people within the party to start thinking that way which we're not seeing right now.

The party also needs to be properly managed. I have sat in political bureau meetings where the discussions are unfocused and there are no solid follow-up procedures in place to ensure implementation.

These are very basic things but sometimes it's the basic things that we tend to overlook. I know politicians don't want to talk about it, so empower the administrative people to handle it. I've always felt that the secretary-general, the treasurer-general and the information chief should be technocrats, professional managers or administrators and not politicians. Either that or ensure that their deputies are non-politicians.

On his chances of winning

We have to acknowledge that the culture of this political party still remains within the realm of old politics which is about knowing each other or holding ceramahs. I'm not doing that. Not because I think it's wrong but because I have family commitments and a lack of resources. I also relate better in smaller groups instead of large crowds. So people on the ground won't know me as well as they do the other candidates and are likely to skip my name on the ballot paper.

On his first step if elected vice-president

Get more buy-in from our members by involving them more in the party. We have 400,000 members but how many of them are active? How many of those members' skills, talents and abilities have we tapped? We don't have orientation programmes.

We don't have programmes whereby we allow them to volunteer to be in our sub-committees, be it on policy-making or research. All those in the sub-committees are appointed and new members since 2008 have no opportunity to get involved. If they want to, who do they contact? If you don't get your members' involvement in what you're doing, they will not have a commitment to what the organisation is doing. I can do this by bringing in ideas that will garner more public support.

On the future deputy president

Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail is like Cory Aquino. She is the symbol, the strength, the loyalty behind Anwar Ibrahim. But it is not all about Anwar. It is about the people. The name of the party is Parti Keadilan Rakyat not Parti Keadilan Anwar Ibrahim. The elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about, including Anwar, is: what if he goes to jail? This is why the focus of this entire election is on the number two position.

If it's going to be Azmin Ali, good! He will be more dynamic than Syed Hussin Ali. If it's going to be Zaid Ibrahim, good! He's going to have different ideas. If it's Mustafa Kamil Ayub, good! He's still someone different and younger.