Abdul Kadir Launches New Party

(Malaysian Digest) – Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir launched Parti Ikatan Bangsa Malaysia (Ikatan) today, with a mission to continue with championing the cause of the old Umno the party was led by Tunku Abdul Rahman.

Abdul Kadir (pic) stressed that he is keeping to the spirit of Umno when it fought for independence as the leaders at that time had placed unity between races and religions as their foremost goal.

He said unity among the different races and faiths have been lacking under the government’s leadership.

“Ikatan is only continuing the struggle of Umno in the past which really gave importance to unity. The issue of unity and religions are being widely played up of late.

“I see now that unity is seen as a small matter. We want to bring the people back to its roots,” Abdul Kadir kepada told a press conference after the official launch of Ikatan at Palace of the Golden Horses, her today .

The former deputy president of Angkatan Amanah Merdeka (Amanah) also stressed that his new party’s struggle is issue-based and refuted allegations that Ikatan is linked to the Opposition.

“Our party is issue-driven. There are a lot of issues that we take on where we take the same stand as Pakatan, but there are also issues where we disagree with them (Pakatan).

“We will be championing issues,” he said adding, that his party is not a “third force”.

The former cabinet minister also said that Ikatan is not yet ready to contest in the upcoming General Election.

However, he said he foresees the party will become the biggest party in a year’s time with an estimated 500,000 to a million members.

“We will not be contesting in the upcoming general election. There’s too limited time (to prepare). But I am confident we will be the biggest party because the issue we are championing is the (issue of) rakyat.

“We put importance to Malaysian race, not to gain power,” he said.

He added that the party won’t stop its members from contesting under another party’s ticket in the 13th General Election if they wish to do so.

“There are a lot of new faces in our party, (they are) highly qualified and responsible. Many of our candidates can win (in elections). They can contest under another party (if they wish to).

“Tapi ada juga pemimpin parti lain yang ingin sertai kami, namun saya tidak boleh mendedahkan identiti mereka,” tambahnya.

Asked on why he has not used Amanah to champion his cause, Abdul Kadir explained that Amanah is only an NGO and does not have political power.

“Amanah was also set up for the same reason. But the organization is an NGO, so we decided to leave Amanah to set up a political party.

“I won’t stop Amanah members to join us (Ikatan). Many of us who registered with Ikatan were from Amanah,” he said, adding that Ikatan did not force them to join the party.

When asked on why he had refused to join Pakatan, Abdul Kadir said he hadn’t done so as the coalition already has its own leaders and he would be regular member he was to join the opposition party.

Ikatan, however, has not yet been registered as a legitimate political party though it has submitted its application to be registered to Registrar of Societies (ROS) on Jun 5.

Among Ikatan’s supreme committee members are its secretary-general, Datuk Seri Mustafa Kamal Maulut, and three deputy presidents Ragunath Kesavan, Ong Hock Siew and Datuk Seri Bujang Ulis.

The launch of the party was attended by about 100 invitees including representatives from the government as well as the opposition.