PKR and patronage
(TNG) PARTI Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) is the future, its president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail declared at the party’s 2009 congress held at the end of May in Kota Baru. But if that were so, the congress showed little direction as to how PKR would lead the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in that future.
The party’s sixth congress focused more on how to convince voters to topple the Barisan Nasional (BN) government in the next general election. Strengthen the party, curb defections, and improve governance and the economy of PKR’s showpiece state, Selangor. As to how it would rule the country with multiethnic policies and meritocracy, or restore the credibility of public institutions like the judiciary, there were little more than broad statements.
PKR leaders at the congress missed the chance to elaborate on its governance plans, notes political observer and academic Prof Dr James Chin of Monash University Sunway. While leaders may have convincingly explained the crisis of defections to delegates, they seemed not to have grasped a creeping issue: the tendency towards patronage.
Contradiction of values
For a party that espouses multiracialism, transparency, meritocracy and needs-based assistance, it’s a contradiction when some delegates boldly call for appointments, jobs and contracts for party members. It suggests that some members have yet to fully understand the broad principles PKR says it upholds, and how these apply to internal governance.
While not all PKR defectors left because they didn’t get what they thought they deserved, a few of them did leave under such circumstances, no matter the other reasons they cited. This much was admitted by Wan Azizah and her deputy Dr Syed Husin Ali.
Whether PKR’s defectors were induced, or whether they left because their demands weren’t met, both are two sides of the same coin. It is the expectation that political parties should care for their own kind through favours.
This was partly reflected in the criticisms against Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim during the congress. Since 2008, Khalid’s efforts to run a clean administration have frustrated those who no longer stand to gain from the old formula of easy handouts. Politically, he has upset Selangor PKR division heads.
At the same time, state executive decisions are not implemented by the civil service. Problems in low-cost housing ownership and allegations against state-owned Kumpulan Semesta Sdn Bhd (KSSB), which was set up to curb illegal sand mining, are some examples.
Delegates and leaders called on Khalid to make amends quickly in the time remaining before the next general election, aptly noting that PKR cannot depend on anti-Umno sentiments.
