by Lee Way Loon Malaysiakini 9:47PM Mar 18, 2013
After weeks of speculation, Pakatan Rakyat officially announced tonight that DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang will be contesting the Gelang Patah parliamentary seat in Johor.
The announcement was made by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim at DAP’s 47th anniversary celebration and ceramah in Skudai.
“It’s true that Gelang Patah was a PKR seat. But we can discuss.
“I hold the opinion that it is still a PKR seat. But if Kit Siang comes and assists us, leads us and becomes the Gelang Patah candidate, I give him my full support,” Anwar told a cheering 20,000-strong crowd.
The PKR de facto leader then invited Lim and all the DAP leaders to come on stage to endorse his decision.
PKR contested Gelang Patah in the last two general elections and lost both times.
Johor DAP chief Dr Boo Cheng Hau and state PKR chief Chua Jui Meng have been crossing swords in the mass media over seat allocation in Johor, a matter that has since been taken over by the national Pakatan leadership.
Anwar, who is also the Permatang Pauh MP, admitted that there were some problems in the seat negotiations among the Pakatan parties.
However, he said, the three parties were keeping united in order to face their only enemy, the BN.
‘My biggest challenge ever’
“We cannot say DAP can win Johor alone, or that PKR or PAS alone can. The only one that can win Johor is Pakatan,” Anwar adde.
In his speech later, Lim said his contest in Gelang Patah would be his biggest challenge ever.
“This is my biggest challenge. I do not know whether I will be safe or not.
“But I must take this risk in order to bring changes in this country,” the Ipoh Timor MP said.
In a high spirited tone, he told the crowd that he would be more than ready if the Johoreans were ready for Pakatan.
“If you are ready, we are ready to bring the changes,” Lim said, adding that Pakatan was targeting to win at least 18 parliamentary seats from the BN in Johor, Negeri Sembilan and Malacca.
His old comrade and DAP national chairman Karpal Singh said Johoreans must rise to help Pakatan to win 15 parliamentary seats in the state.
“Johoreans must do what the Penangites have done,” Karpal said.
To this, the crowd responded with a loud “yes!”
The emcee announced that more than 40,000 people attended the event. However, our estimate is a crowd size of about 20,000 only.