KUCHING: State PKR chairman Baru Bian said the party will file a judicial review to challenge the barring of four PKR national leaders from the state during the Balingian by-election campaign period.
The leaders barred were PKR vice president and Batu MP Tian Chua, secretary-general Datuk Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, women chief and Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin and strategy director and Pandan MP Raifizi Ramli.
“We have discussed the point of law and we are at the moment trying to get statements from our leaders and get ready the papers. We are fortunate that the law has been amended and we can file the review much later.
“It used to be 40 days and now we have three months to file the judicial review. At least there is time for us to prepare for this because at the moment, we are very busy with party election. We will take it up (the cases),” he told a press conference here yesterday.
Baru said during his discussion with the party’s de-facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Rafizi and Tian Chua at the immigration office in Sibu airport recently, he told them that it was the right time and occasion to file the judicial review considering that they had a very strong case.
“At least one of them is fine with us, suffice to prove that the state was wrong (in barring the leaders) and I’m very confident that this case could get through.” Baru said.
On another matter, the state PKR has called on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to sack Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim for suggesting that Malaysians vote along racial lines.
Baru said the proposal by Shahidan, which was also supported by Kinabatangan MP Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin, was very dangerous, adding that such call really suggested that Malaysians “are really going back into the wilderness of the past”.
“It is really a reflection of the prime minister. If he is truly advocating for 1Malaysia, I think he should discipline and sack this minister who is in his own department,” he pointed out.
Baru, who is Ba Kelalan assemblyman, said the state PKR was very concerned about the extremist views of certain quarters in the country, which would destroy the country’s reputation as a moderate nation.
On another note, he clarified that the state PKR had never said that the state was scared of Anwar and there would be international repercussions if the state did not let Anwar in.