I call on all Pakatan Rakyat leaders and supporters to unite to save Pakatan Rakyat from the latest UMNO/Barisan Nasional (BN) wiles to sow discord and distrust among Pakatan Rakyat parties and leaders with the agenda to divide and destroy the most formidable challenge the ruling coalition had ever to face in its history.
The latest UMNO/BN gambit is to fully exploit Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s five-year incarceration and the passing of Tok Guru Nik Aziz resulting in two by-elections, the Permatang Pauh parliamentary and the Kelantan Chempaka State Assembly by-elections, with UMNO staying out of the Chempaka by-election but going all out in the Permatang Pauh parliamentary by-election.
This will be a revival of the plot by certain UMNO schemers and strategists to promote the UG concept or “unity government” of UMNO and PAS, but which have not been able to make much headway to date because of the staunch and uncompromising opposition from Nik Aziz.
To these UMNO schemers and strategists, the death of Nik Aziz brings new hope for their dormant “UG” conspiracy.
I am very intrigued however as what the promoters of “UG government” really meant, when it is obvious to all that there is no unity in UMNO itself, with former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir going all out to topple Datuk Seri Najib Razak as Umno President and Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Be that as it may, we need not hide the fact that PR is facing our greatest crisis since our formation seven years ago, and many are asking whether PR can survive intact or will disintegrate and disappear from the political arena.
I call on PR leaders and supporters to exert every effort to save PR from disintegration for its embodies the best hopes of Malaysians for change and improvement of the quality of life of all Malaysians – which was why a majority of 52% of the electorate voted for PR in the 13th General Elections and why Datuk Seri Najib Razak is the first minority Prime Minister in Malaysia.
When I visited Alor Star last Thursday morning, I suggested an eight-year Pakatan Rakyat Roadmap to save PR from disintegration, a re-commitment by all the three component parties of DAP, PKR and PAS to reaffirm the two fundamental principles which had been the secrets of the PR success in its first six years – strict adherence to the PR Common Policy Framework which had formed the bedrock common principles of the three component parties in the coalition, and the operational principle of consensus regarding the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council as the highest policy-making body for PR.
If we stay loyal to these two fundamental principles, I am confident that PR will be able to grow from strength to strength to fulfill the hopes of generations of Malaysians for change and Malaysia’s rendezvous with greatness, and take PR to Putrajaya to form the new Malaysian government in the 14th General Elections.
There is now an added reason why PR must remain as solid as ever – as this is the only way to save Anwar from 10-year oblivion from the political scene plotted by UMNO schemes and strategists, i.e. five years of jail sentence followed by another five years of disenfranchisement of his civil rights, where he could not stand for elective office or even to exercise his constitutional right to vote.
Anwar has exhausted the judicial process with the Federal Court’s shocking 5-0 unanimous verdict dismissing his appeal and sending him back to jail for the fourth time in his life.
However, in a parliamentary democracy, final powers rest with the ordinary people through their vote in the general elections, and this is where People’s Power in the 14th General Elections in three years’ time can result in Anwar’s earlier release from jail and even allow him to meet his destiny as Prime Minister of Malaysia – if the voters of Malaysia exercise their constitutional and democratic right to oust the UMNO/BN coalition through the ballot box and install a new Pakatan Rakyat federal government of Malaysia.
My proposal of an eight-year commitment by the three PR component parties to continue to uphold the two fundamental principles of PR common policy framework and the operational consensus mechanism is for PR to “return to basics”, and to put aside whatever differences we have for the next eight years, as we had done in the first six years.
The eight years is derived from three years to the 14GE from now and the five years after the 14GE, as PR must make a commitment to Malaysians as to the policies we are committed to implement if PR achieve power in Putrajaya after the 14GE.
It is most unfortunate that I do not have the opportunity to discuss with Nik Aziz my proposal of an Eight-Year Roadmap for PR not only to save PR but also to save Anwar, as the former Kelantan Mentri Besar passed away the same night after a prolonged illness.
I have no doubt however that Nik Aziz, as an architect of PR and whose unswerving support was one of the major factors for PR’s stunning success in the 2008 and 2013 general elections, would have given his final backing to the Eight-Year PR Roadmap, even if he had some initial reservations about political parties putting aside policy differences and issues not agreed in the PR Common Policy Framework until after 2023.
One such major issue will be the hudud question.
In May 2012 in Hulu Terengganu, PAS President Datuk Sri Hadi Awang said hudud could only be implemented if there are adequate conditions (hudud hanya dilaksana jika cukup syarat), where he gave the examples that if there is no minimum wage provision or resolution of the unemployment problem, the conditions for implementation for hudud do not exist.
This is what PR parties agreed in the PR Common Policy Framework (CPF) and why PR leaders and supporter should “return to basics for PR” and reaffirm commitment to the PR CPF not only to save PR but also to save Anwar.
[Speech at the second DAP SSS (Sympathy, Support and Solidarity) Anwar Ibrahim ceramah at Han Chiang School Hall, Penang on Monday, February 16, 2015 at 10 pm]