Buck up or lose, Johor PKR warned
Anwar Ibrahim issues a blunt advice to the Johor chapter of PKR in the fight to bring down the BN fortress.
(Free Malaysia Today) – PKR adviser Anwar Ibrahim yesterday warned the party’s Johor chapter that it may again lose all seats it contested in the upcoming 13th general election if it did not work harder.
“If you do not work now, we will not win,” he told delegates at the party’s Johor PKR convention held at Pulai Springs Resort here.
Johor has traditionally remained a BN fortress. All but one parliamentary seats are held by BN component parties with the majority held by Umno.
“So far, we have seen some changes… there are now a lot of programmes being carried out by Johor PKR… but is it enough? No,” Anwar said.
He said although the Barisan Nasional (BN) may be “evil” or “crooks”, it did not mean that it would lose in the next general election.
“We need good organisation and strategy. The hard truth is that it’s not guaranteed that evil will not win. If those we fight have discipline and good organisation and we don’t, we will lose,” he said.
Anwar cited Chua Jui Meng whose appointment as Johor PKR chief had upset some members, saying:” (If we continue to have cases when) even for one position we fought for three months, (then) you don’t deserve to win.”
The Permatang Pauh MP urged Johor PKR to strengthen its machinery and recruit more members.
“If you have only 40 members in a branch and your branch chief claims to have the right to be a candidate, then you are in the wrong party. The candidate has to be a good worker, not simply a chief,” he said.
‘Raise your grouse’
Anwar urged members to bring up their complaints but continue to work towards running a smooth political party in the state.
“If you don’t agree with anything, even if you’re unhappy with Chua, then by all means… raise your grouses.”
“We have just started to take off, but we need to continue (working) smoothly to become a more convincing machinery compared to other states. We have to improve ourselves,” he said.
Speaking to reporters later, Anwar played down his stern warning to Johor PKR, saying that it was normal for him to encourage the party to improve.
“I always encourage them to improve and Johor has improved a lot.”
“We are confident in Johor. We’ve seen support growing,” Anwar said when asked if Pakatan Rakyat could take over Johor.
He said that the ruling government was intimidated by Pakatan in Johor as evidenced in the matter of permits.
He said that getting a permit for a ceramah was the most difficult in the state.
“It’s the hardest to get permits in Johor, which means that Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and Umno are feeling threatened and pressured by us,” he said.
Uphill task
Speaking to reporters later, Chua said that it has been an uphill task to consolidate the party after he took over its reins in July 2010.
“I had to build up a dysfunctional state party from scrap. It took one year to uproot the many moles, including ‘Trojan Horses’, Special Branch and Umno spies who were feeding information to the ruling party,” said Chua, the former health minister who joined PKR in 2009 after 35 years in MCA.
The veteran politician said that he also had a tough time because when he was appointed as PKR chief for Johor, there were factions who believed in “Ketuanan Melayu” and didn’t think the Chinese could lead the state.
However, he believed all that is in the past, and the Johor chapter, consisting of 10,000 members, was “clean” now.
“We’ve now pulled in the best people, including many professionals. We’re now presenting a credible front,” he said.
Chua added that the turnout for today’s convention was a positive (sign of PKR’s strength).
