Anwar pledges PKR will stay its course, exercise caution in accepting former Umno members applying to join the party
Anwar (left) about to chair the PKR Sarawak branch leaders meeting. On his right is Batu Lintang assemblyman and PKR Sarawak vice-chairman See Chee How.
KUCHING: The collapse of the United Malay National Organisation (Umno) and the party leadership’s decision to join Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) were the main concerns of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sarawak leaders when they met party president yesterday.
PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, when speaking to reporters after a closed door meeting with leaders from
29 branches, assured Sarawak leaders that Pakatan Harapan (PH) spirit would remain intact and would never be compromised.
“I give you my word that Pakatan Harapan will maintain its principle. As I said, we are a democratic country but we must protect the integrity of Pakatan Harapan as a party with principle, that rejects corruption, rejects racism – we must protect this,” he said.
Anwar also revealed that he would exercise caution when approached by former Umno leadership to join the party.
“We must discuss about this in great details so that there will be no negative perception among the people,” he stressed.
Anwar said the chairman of PKR Sarawak would be known today (Saturday) as branch leaders had submitted their preference via a secret ballot to the party president. Unlike the party branch elections, branch leaders had put in writing the person whom they believed could lead PKR Sarawak.
“I can inform you tonight (Friday) – if you insist,” Anwar joked with the newsmen, but was quick to say that the chairman of PKR Sarawak would be determined by the majority number of votes.
“Under the constitution, I (president) have the power to choose but I am giving it back to every state – not only Sarawak and Sabah – (for them) to choose their own leaders,” he said.
Anwar was very happy to note that PKR Sarawak leaders were closing ranks and working closely together after going through a tumultuous election.
“Sometime the young people, they are very vocal. We must move forward with the party and I am very happy to note that the priority in our discussion just now was to form machinery to face the next state election.”
Anwar regarded PKR as a very democratic party and all complaints lodged with the police and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) would be investigated by the relevant authorities.
“What good in PKR is, we give the freedom to members who want to question (election) process to lodge report to police or MACC, but it must stop there. Let the authorities investigate,” he said.
PKR, stressed Anwar, must not continue to be embroiled in quarrels.
“We have decided to accept the results, we also agreed to strengthen the party – the winner (and) the loser, working together – at national level,” he said.
Anwar said this was nothing new, because being a ‘family contest’, the winner would be acknowledged as someone getting the mandate, while the loser must be accepted as icon with strength to contribute.
“This, however, does not include isolated cases involving continuous betrayal. I see in Sarawak very positive – the people don’t want to know the past problems, but (they) focus on building the party’s capacity to face the Sarawak election.
Anwar said he was very happy to meet with all PKR branch leaders, and disclosed that Works Minister Baru Bian, was ‘absent with permission’.
“Baru could not attend because he had to attend a very important church function (in his area),” said Anwar, also pointing out that what he saw in Sarawak was contrary to what he heard about the PKR Sarawak’s affairs.
“I am seeing the opposite – I saw a very compact team with very high spirits to work together,” he concluded.