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Bid to unseat BN govt
Anwar dismisses cynics
by Maria J. Dass and Timothy Leonard
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
SHAH ALAM: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)
adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim yester-
day dismissed talks by cynics that his talk
of taking over the government was just
rhetoric, saying: “Insyallah, not long, we
will be in Putrajaya.”
Speaking at the closing of the 5th
PKR national congress at the Malawati
Stadium here, he said: “There will not be
any buying (of MPs), there will not be any
threats, there will not be any trips to Taipei
to learn farming. That is not us, those are
the actions of bankrupt politicians.”
Speaking of the exploitation of the
indigenous people of Sabah and Sarawak,
especially the ancestral land exploitation
issues, he said: “We are giving their lead-
ers the option – are they going to continue
supporting a system that insults the intel-
ligence of their own people?
“In the name of God, I trust the wisdom
of my people, all Malaysians.”
He said all this will be achieved by the
Delegate provides comic relief at congress
SHAH ALAM: Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s 5th
national congress debate wrap-up yester-
day was splattered with a little intensity
and a dose of comic relief when supreme
council member N. Gobalakrishnan took
to the stage.
He almost had a wardrobe malfunction
when his veshti (lower cloth of traditional
Indian costume) seemed to come loose
while he was delivering his speech.
This was minutes after the Padang Serai
parliamentarian declared he was prepared
to don the Iban traditional costume after
having worn a baju Melayu to the congress
on Saturday.
Clutching the piece of cloth tied around
his waist, Gobalakrishnan was struggling
to tighten it as his colleagues on stage and
those in the audience chuckled.
He said he had worn the baju Melayu
to be one with the majority group at the
congress but stressed that this in no way
meant that the rights of the minority will
be ignored. “Anyone who wants to violate
the rights of the minority will have to do it
over our dead body,” he said.
Earlier, he asked the delegates to give
Anwar time to achieve the party’s plans of
taking over the government.
“It took us 10 years to get here, and
just like rice that has been cooking for 10
power of prayers. “Don’t underestimate
the power of prayers because we can
plan, we can work but the power of the
prayers of people of all faiths should not
be underestimated.”
“We all believe in what is right and we
leave it to God, and in a short time, hope-
fully, we will achieve what we want.”
Anwar had told a public rally on
Saturday that Sarawak will be their next
battleground before the Pakatan Rakyat
takes over the federal government
He asked the party’s leaders to make
weekly trips to Sarawak to meet its aim to
unseat the BN government in the state.
He stated this when explaining to
those present why the Pakatan Rakyat
could not meet its Sept 16 deadline to
unseat the federal government.
He further said the takeover did not
materialise because a letter to negotiate
the matter sent to Prime Minister Datuk
Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was not en-
tertained by him. Another reason, he said,
was that BN MPs wanting to defect had
laid a condition that their names not be
Anwar and wife Datuk Seri Dr
Wan Azizah Wan Ismail laugh
at the antics of a delegate.
years, we should not eat it straight away
or we will burn our mouth. We have to wait
for the rice to cool before putting it into
our mouths, so just like this we should give
Anwar time to take over Putrajaya.”
PKR strategy director Saifuddin Nasution
said PKR members should start working
towards winning the next general election.
“In Kelantan alone, there are 206,000
voters aged above 21 years who have not
registered,” he said, adding PKR must also
be ready to face the knowledge-based vot-
revealed until they were ready to do so.
His call to take Sarawak however has
got his cynics pooh-poohing his claims,
Bernama reported.
In Kuching, Sarawak Chief Minister
Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud questioned
Anwar’s credibility, especially when his
Sept 16 deadline to form a new govern-
ment did not materialise.
“I don’t want to comment on people
like that. Well, his (Anwar’s) credibilty is
not that high when he said Sept 16 is his
target date which he promised to be the
date to form a new government.”
In Kota Kinabalu, Information Minis-
ter Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek regarded
PKR’s aim to capture Sarawak next year
as yet another delusion of Mat Jenin, a
dreamer in a popular Malay fable. He said
after PKR failed to form the federal gov-
ernment on Sept 16 as promised, many
people had lost their faith in the party.
“I see the ‘Mat Jenins’ from the penin-
sula who failed to realise their big dream of
forming the government on Sept 16, now
trying again to win over the people.”
ORIENTALPIX
ers who will be looking out for candidates
with good performance and consist-
ency. Saifuddin said towards this each PKR
branch has a role to play, however small.
Supreme council member Christina Liew
said it was time for the people in Sabah and
Sarawak to change their governments after
years of oppression where their customary
land was given to timber companies and
plantations among others.
“If you don’t do this, soon the last inch
of your land will also go.”
theSun
Guan Eng: No plans
to reshuffle exco
SHAH ALAM: Penang Chief Min-
ister Lim Guan Eng said yesterday
he has no plans to reshuffle the
executive councillors’ portfolios
and will leave it to Parti Keadilan
Rakyat to decide on the deputy
chief minister (1) post, now held
by Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin.
“Any proposal for a change
should come from PKR. For now,
we have not received any feedback
from PKR.”
He was responding to talk
that Mohammad Fairus from PKR
would be dropped and Seberang
Jaya assemblyman Datuk Arif
Shah Omar Shah had been of-
fered the position.
Asked if he was satisfied with
Mohammad Fairus’s performance
in the exco, Lim said: “Everyone
has room for improvement. We
are all able to believe that we can
do better, want to be better and
we all can’t be too self-satisfied.”
He was speaking to reporters
after attending the 5th PKR Na-
tional Congress in Shah Alam.
On rumours that Arif Shah may
cross over from Umno to Pakatan
Rakyat, Lim said he has not received
any notice of this but welcome any-
one who shared the principles of
the alliance, like respect for justice
and rule of law, human rights and
socio-economic justice.
“I’m making a very general
statement,” he said, adding Arif
may cross over as he does not
have the support of his own party
colleagues.
On Pakatan Rakyat’s aim to
Explain presence at PKR meet, Zaid told
KOTA KINABALU: Former minister
in the Prime Minister’s Department
Datuk Mohd Zaid Ibrahim must ex-
plain his presence at Parti Keadilan
Rakyat’s national congress in Shah
Alam on Saturday to Umno’s disci-
plinary board before action is taken
against him, Umno vice-president Tan
Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said yesterday.
Muhyiddin said Zaid’s presence
at the congress was not the first
time he had attended a gathering
by the Opposition and this proved
his disloyalty to Umno.
“It doesn’t make sense that he
| MONDAY DECEMBER 1 2008
wrest Sarawak from Barisan Na-
sional and how the three parties
– PAS, DAP and PKR – are going
to work together especially in
terms of seat allocation, Lim said:
“We are moving in (to Sarawak)
and will work together, but the
question of seat allocation is too
premature as the Sarawak elec-
tions are still a long way off.”
Talk of taking over Sarawak
and wresting the state back from
Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib
Mahmud has been rife during this
congress with several Sarawakian
delegates bringing up alleged in-
justices by Abdul Taib during his
27-year reign, including the side-
lining of the rights and interest of
the indigenous communities.
During the debate on the
motion for education, Sarawak
delegate Baru Bien said: “In my
younger days I used to walk five
hours to school and stay there,
only returning five days later. To-
day the situation is pretty much
the same and the schools are
run-down too and we hope that
a change in the government will
mean better schools.”
Bien also said the land rights of
the indigenous people had been
greatly eroded as the state gov-
ernment had given out millions of
acres to quarries, oil palm planta-
tions and logging companies.
“We have been asking of these
lands to be gazetted for a long
time but to no avail,” he said. He
claimed those who spoke up were
detained by the police.
attended a gathering of the Op-
position. This (Zaid’s presence) is
seen as giving moral support to the
Opposition.
“He must explain why he went
to the congress. He has to be re-
sponsible for his actions.”
According to the Malaysian
Insider website, Zaid claimed he is
still an Umno member and does not
see the Opposition as enemies.
He said his presence at the con-
gress showed that he is still interested
in politics and does not expect to be
sacked from Umno. – Bernama