Various members of Parti Keadilan Rakyat seem to have their hands full these days. Namely, Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim has recently announced his intention to contend for the presidency of the party regardless of the outcome of an appeal to the Registrar of Societies; a potential outcome being that the party be de-registered or suspended should the Registrar not allow Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s appeal and if the former Deputy Prime Minister maintains on regaining the party’s presidency. The party’s current leader, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also his wife, has already made known that she would resign to accommodate her husband’s ambitions.
Elsewhere, the party’s ‘Information Chief,’ Tian Chua, has been charged with attempted murder following the events at Kampung Berembang on the 7th of March 2007. The prosecuting officers were granted a two-day remand order on the 8th of March 2007, but Tian Chua was subsequently released later on that same very same day. He has since threatened to sue the relevant parties for wrongdoings done to him.
Then there was the confusion surrounding the resignation of former Keadilan Youth chief Ezam Mohd Noor from his posts as Selangor Keadilan deputy chairman and Shah Alam division head which was announced on the 14th of February 2007. Information Chief Tian Chua subsequently denied that Ezam Mohd Noor had relinquished his posts, stating that the party had not received any formal indication from him. The news was eventually confirmed on the 15th of February 2007, though not without the necessary gossip and rumours behind his resignation, which included alleged rifts with Keadilan vice-president Azmin Ali and Ezam Mohd Noor’s own thinly-veiled allegations of UMNO-like power struggles within the party. He nevertheless remains an ordinary member of the party.
There is much ado within the party. The old figurehead attempts to return to his seat of power amidst a jungle of red-tape and bureaucracy which has a life of its own, and an agenda of its masters. Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s insistence on being the president of the party at the possible cost of the party’s very existence is a cause of worry; is the former Deputy so motivated and passionate that he is willing to risk everything? Or is it a masked attempt at causing a self-inflicted wound to garner cheap attention from the ever-apathetic public?
And what exactly does the “Information Chief” of Parti Keadilan Rakyat do? Tian Chua has been jailed numerous times under the Internal Security Act, and he is no stranger to the application of the rule of law in this country. Just as Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim was convicted of corruption on trumped-up charges, so has Tian Chua been subjected to the ever-vigilant processes of criminal justice in Malaysia. A charge of attempted murder would surely open up the eyes of many, and is perhaps why the charge has since been dropped; lest the jurisprudence involving murder were to be perverted beyond recognition and the courts be swamped with murder cases (and derivatives thereof, including attempt) involving Mat Rempits, litterbugs and drivers who run red lights.
Parti Keadilan Rakyat continues to thrive amidst public opinion of its impotence. It also continues to battle demons within it: Despite claims of being a multi-racial party, it still fails to shed its image of being a race-based party as opposed to an issue-based one. For it to progress any further, it must leave behind the demagogy of colonial times. In February 2007, the nomination of Datuk Nallakarupan as vice-president was made with the intention of seducing Indian voters in mind. Azmin Ali said, ‘Datuk Nalla has been proven to bring in many members of the Indian society to PKR despite being a member for only a few months. I need the support of the Indian community at Batu Caves to allow PKR to win [the Gombak seat in Parliament].’
But what of Datuk Nallakarupan’s own abilities and contributions to the party? Surely he is not there just to make up the numbers? If Parti Keadilan Rakyat is to avoid the trappings of racial Malaysia, it must look beyond the rules of engagement, for noone else will.
Above all, the party really must start to entrust its propaganda to more mature members. Using the song ‘Down With The Sickness’ by Disturbed, in a recent video informing the people of a public protest on the 18th of March 2007, in an attempt to rile up the public is a method more reminiscent of pubescent teenage rebels instead of the methods a multi-racial national party with aims of reforming an entire country really should be employing.
What exactly does the “Information Chief” of Parti Keadilan Rakyat do anyway?
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