Toe party line to get our seats, says PKR

Azmin said PKR now has more credible candidates as there was more interest to run for opposition parties. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 15 — PKR will only consider candidates from non-Pakatan Rakyat (PR) groups if they agree firmly to the coalition’s policies, said deputy president Azmin Ali yesterday. He said the youngest party in the opposition pact is open to candidates from organisations such as the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) and even giving Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) more seats if they were willing to abide by the coalition’s whip.
“We can discuss with them. But if they still want to be independent, what’s the point?” the Gombak MP said of MCLM, which has said that it will propose 30 “defection-proof” candidates to offer to PKR.
If elected, MCLM said that its candidates will decide on issues based on their conscience rather than the coalition’s consensus. It is only offering candidates to PKR, not other PR parties such as the DAP and PAS.
Azmin, who is now also election director, said that PKR’s top leadership including de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim held a meeting with PSM over the weekend to discuss seat allocation for the next general election.
“They have been loyal to us, more so than some of those who ran and defected. So, we have no problems giving them another two seats as long as they continue to stand with us,” he said of the party that had also contested in 2004 and 2008 under PKR’s symbol.
Of the four candidates who ran in 2008, PSM claimed two victories as Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj won PSM’s first-ever parliamentary seat by defeating then-MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu in Sungai Siput while PSM president Dr Nasir Hashim won the Kota Damansara seat in the Selangor state legislative assembly.
Chief strategist Rafizi Ramli also admitted that it was wary of accepting candidates offered by MCLM because it wanted to avoid making the same “mistake” of 2008 where it had picked candidates who could not withstand the pressure and challenges of being a lawmaker.
He said that while the party was “open” to MCLM’s offer and accepted the movement’s criticisms against the party, PKR will in the end make its own choice and will choose its own party members who have had experience being grassroots leaders as well as being involved in politics.
“While we are open to suggestions, the candidates must subscribe to our struggle. We are a political party with structure and rules. We have already gone through a painful experience with the ‘frogs’ where in the past we took people who were less experienced and they jumped (at the first given opportunity).

Rafizi said PKR was wary of accepting candidates offered by MCLM. — File pic

“What was missing was the appreciation of the party struggle,” Rafizi told The Malaysian Insider in an exclusive interview recently. PKR has since 2008 suffered from a string of high-profile defections. Six PKR federal lawmakers have quit the party within a year.
The latest defections from the party are Sabah PKR chief Pajudin Nordin who joined Umno and Padang Serai MP N. Gobalakrishnan. Datuk Zaid Ibrahim left last November during the party’s fractious elections and is now helming Parti Kita.
“We must be careful, we must make sure this does not happen twice. So when MCLM keeps harping on suggested candidates, we are glad to work and discuss, but then again that candidate must be our party member, understand our struggle, obey our party discipline, or otherwise we will just go back to square one,” said Rafizi.
Azmin also said that compared to 2008, the party now has more credible candidates as there was more interest to run for opposition parties.
“Before the 2008 election, we could not find candidates because people were still afraid and we were a small party with only one MP,” he said.
Rafizi said there was doubt within the party as to whether MCLM’s candidates would be able to work well on a grassroots level as most of them were upper middle-class lawyers.
“I’m sure you understand that these lawyers may not be able to work well with people. I myself struggle when it comes to connecting with the grassroots. You see, the expectation of an elected representative in Malaysia is not the same as the US.
“It is unfair (for MCLM) to talk down to PKR as if we are so crappy ... we have some credible strengths,” he said.
He said PKR needed to focus on the upcoming general election and should not “operate” at the mercy of some “pressure groups.”
The MCLM has insisted it was trying to help the opposition pact regain momentum in the coming elections.
Its president, Haris Ibrahim, has moved to quell public scepticism that its independent candidate initiative would cause a vote split with the PR and derail the drive to topple the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
The MCLM wants to replace the current batch of PKR MPs who are not performing as lawmakers with those the London-based group sees as responsible representatives committed to drawing up laws in the public interest.
The civil society initiative has so far named lawyers Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, Sreekant Pillai, former All Women’s Action Society president Haslinah Yacob and dentist Dr Nedunchelian Vengu as their independent candidates to date.
Haris had stressed that the independent candidates had each been subjected to a stringent background check by hired private investigators and were required to sign a statutory declaration disclosing all their assets.
The Malaysian Insider understands it has 18 such candidates on its books at the moment.