MCLM against 3-way fights
“Let’s for argument’s sake say Malik goes for Wangsa Maju and we start our work there. Then suddenly Wee Choo Keong returns and he has kissed and made up with PKR, would you want us to pull Malik out? Of course, we have to look at the situation.”
By Teoh El Sen, Free Malaysia Today
PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) last night sought to allay fears that its election candidates would split opposition votes to the benefit of Barisan Nasional.
“Nobody wants a three-cornered fight because it would be a hurdle to us winning Putrajaya; we’re looking at straight fights,” MCLM president Haris Ibrahim said at the group’s first public forum in Malaysia. It was held at the Kuala Lumpur-Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.
Haris added, however, that MCLM would ultimately leave it to the rakyat to decide and admitted that three-cornered fights would not be totally out of the question.
Since MCLM’s recent emergence on the political scene, civil society groups have been voicing concerns that it could be spoiling the opposition’s aim of toppling BN.
Several prominent NGOs have told FMT that the public is lukewarm in its acceptance of MCLM because it has yet to clear the air over the issue of split votes.
Members of last night’s audience repeatedly asked Haris and MCLM parliamentary candidates Malik Imtiaz Sarwar and Sreekant Pillai to make a firm stand on the issue.
Haris said he was confident that MCLM and Pakatan Rakyat parties could work out a solution if they focussed on the rakyat’s wellbeing. But he added that there might be situations in which MCLM would have to stand its ground.
“Let’s for argument’s sake say Malik goes for Wangsa Maju and we start our work there. Then suddenly Wee Choo Keong returns and he has kissed and made up with PKR, would you want us to pull Malik out? Of course, we have to look at the situation.”
Wee is the current MP for Wangsa Maju. He quit PKR last May and is now independent, but friendly to BN.
Haris said MCLM would base its decision on the wishes of voters.
“We will always be guided by the constituents,” he said. “We will be doing periodic two-month polls—and this will be done by credible professionals—to gauge the rakyat’s response to the candidates. We listen to the boss, and if they like us, we contest.
He said MCLM would, by this February, start campaign preparations in its chosen constituencies if none of the non-BN parties had by then decided whom to field.
“We will start going to the ground and set up the structures necessary. But at the same time our doors are always open to discussions until nomination day.”
Pro-rakyat
Malik said he was opposed to a three-cornered fight and joked that he would contest in Pekan against the incumbent, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, to loud cheers from the audience.
“In principle I am opposed to a three-cornered fight,” he said. “But it’s not as simple as an A or B thing. We have to go back to the people. And who could call it at this juncture when it is even possible to have a four or five-cornered fight?”
He said MCLM would have other roles to play if Pakatan were to field a good candidate. “We’re not here to dilute the pro-reform agenda. We are not in this for the position and power.”
Sreekant said he too was against three-cornered fights. “I don’t see why Pakatan Rakyat would be against us,” he said. “We are in principle both pro-rakyat. And I am someone who fights for the rakyat.”
The student movement Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia, which has pledged to field candidates for MCLM, said it would be ready to back down if other parties could offer better candidates.
“If they tell us ‘You’re just students, go back and study first,’ then well and good,” said its chairman, Shazni Munir Mohd Ithnin. “We will see what the rakyat wants. We will try to settle things with Pakatan Rakyat, but if there’s someone more capable, then we’re ready to back down.”
Haris also said MCLM would hold its first congress in the first week of the new year and was planning to launch a Malay-language newspaper, also next month.
“We’ll then hold our roundtable discussion with non-BN parties in the third week of January,” he said. “And in the first week of February, we’ll be deploying all candidates to their respective constituencies and start a shadow MP programme. We want them to know we’re serious.
