Bruce Chai
MIRI: The chaotic party election in Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) is part of the teething pains of a new Malaysia where reforms across the board from political landscape, civil service and society could not be achieved overnight.
In stating this, United People’s Party (UPP) Pujut branch chairman Bruce Chai said only time will tell if the touted reforms would be successful but the PKR controversial party elections – it’s first in the ruling coalition at Putrajaya – should be viewed in the broader context of reforms sought in a new era.
“This is a start and we must embrace this kind of changes and adhere to rule of law, clean governance, clean political parties and civil society to ensure ‘Malaysia Baru’s’ vision is achievable.
“The bucks stops here, the problem has be solved at the root – corrupt practices should be tackled, “ he said.
Chai said this in response to Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan’s stinging criticism today that PKR has lost the moral right to toot its horn as a reformist party, after its recent internal election was marred by allegations of misconduct and fraud which resulted in party members heading to police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to call for investigations.
Ambiga tweeted that PKR was mistaken if it thinks Malaysians are unaware of what was happening in the party polls over the last two months, saying the later need to believe in clean and fair elections to be reformists.
She pointed to the controversy of PKR Julau branch membership ballooned to 13,178 members from just 603 overnight and in spite of complaints of fraud lodged with the police, the party’s election committee had approved the membership and allowed the branch to hold its elections as scheduled last Saturday.
The polls were suspended following allegations that the e-voting system was hacked last Saturday and police seized seven tablets used in the e-voting system and detained a party election worker for questioning in Sibu.
Sarawak PKR information chief Vernon Kedit filed a report with the MACC today over alleged vote-buying, producing a thumb drive which he claimed to contain evidence of the alleged corrupt practices.
Chai said expectations of overnight reforms in ‘Malaysia Baru’ era is unrealistic.
“Any sort of reforms – political, government services – in time of change of regime or government could not be achieved overnight. Anyone who believes that change can be done overnight has to have a wake-up call,” he said.
He also pointed to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who acknowledged that the a lot of civil servants are still stuck in the old system and not adhering to the new policies by the new government.
“The ‘Malaysia Baru’ novelty is good but only time and evolution can change the culture and attitude in government service and political parties.
“It could be not achieved overnight, nor something which everyone can accept overnight as it and only time will tell whether we can mature with a clean and transparent government and political parties reflect the civil society,” he said.