MCLM: Up to candidate to join PKR or not
(Malaysiakini) – As far as the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) is concerned, there is no need for its carefully vetted candidates to join PKR in order for them to contest under the opposition party’s ticket.
“Our modus operandi has always been such, that we do not to make it compulsory for our candidates to join any political party, unless they are so inclined.
“It is up to the candidates to join or not to join,” the movement’s president Haris Ibrahim (left) told Malaysiakini when contacted.
He said that any such requirement of the political parties MCLM approaches was not something the movement would support.
Yesterday, PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli said that while the party, himself and deputy president Azmin Ali were open to any cooperation with MCLM, they would require candidates from the movement to join the opposition party in order to contest under its banner.
“Rafizi is the director of strategy. Did he consult with de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim or party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail?
“We shall wait to hear what the top brass has to say about this,” Haris said in response.
Issue to be discussed at MCLM roundtable
He added that the matter would be brought up at the MCLM roundtable involving top party leaders and NGOs, which is to take place in the second week of next month.
“PKR has also been invited. We will see what they have to say about this matter,” concluded the MCLM president.
As a rule, most candidates who contest under any political party banner are usually expected to lend their voting support to the sponsor party and indeed, most do sign up as members.
Haris had, under his People’s Parliament initiative, sponsored Charles Santiago in the 2008 general election. Santiago joined the DAP before the election and went on to win the Klang parliamentary seat on the opposition party’s ticket.
Controversial Bandar Baru Kulim MP Zulkifli Nordin also joined the PKR, despite originally being a PAS member, in order to contest the seat.
Some candidates who contest under political party banners remain independent afterwards.
The most notorious of them is Pasir Mas parliamentarian Ibrahim Ali, a former Umno MP who ran under the PAS ticket, and then went on to become one of his former sponsor’s most ardent critics.
