By Shannon Teoh, The Malaysian Insider
Which comes first? Change or popular support?
Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was forced to state his case for the support of civil society after maverick blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, who is a figurehead for various grassroots movements in Malaysia, challenged Pakatan Rakyat (PR) over their commitment to reform.
In a dialogue with Malaysians here yesterday, Raja Petra (picture, second from left), commonly known as RPK on his controversial Malaysia Today website, threatened to pull out from suppporting PR in the upcoming Galas by-election as PR had failed to deliver on promises agreed before the March 2008 elections.
In that historic elections saw the fledgling opposition pact sweep into power in five states and gain 82 seats in Parliament, denying Barisan Nasional (BN) their customary two-thirds majority in the legislative house.
But Anwar pleaded for understanding as many of the reforms could not be implemented without control of federal government and insisted that civil society should help PR come into power so that these reforms could come to past.
Raja Petra said that “prior to March 2008, we sat down for months and formulated the People’s Declaration which was an improved version of an earlier document, Agenda for Change whose author was Anwar himself when he was in prison,” the blogger who is in self-imposed exile in the UK said, referring to the former deputy prime minister’s time in prison after being sacked and then charged with sodomy and abuse of power.
The maverick blogger described how the declaration, which encompasses a wide range of issues from the economy, education, healthcare and politics, was presented to the three parties that make up PR and other opposition parties and claimed that “it was accepted more or less as an election manifesto. Because of that we went to the ground, we campaigned and criss-crossed Malaysia.”
However, he expressed his unhappiness that PR had yet to deliver on the promises in the manifesto despite being in power in several states for over two-and-a-half years. He cited examples such as the lack of newspapers, especially in Malay, by the state governments controlled by PR as it was necessary to fight the media battle leading up to the next general elections.
He compared the pace of reforms to the UK, where the Liberal Democrats only agreed to a coalition government with the Conservatives after being promised wide-ranging reforms would be implemented within two years.
“We have given PR two-and-a-half years but not a single reform has been implemented. Some can be done immediately, some two years, some 20 years. At least let us see some, then we will be quite happy and we will continue to support PR in every by and general election including Galas,” he said.
He said that PR’s huge gains in the elections was due to the support from civil society who were a genuine “third force” and cited examples such as the Bersih and Hindraf rallies in 2007 which championed free and fair elections and lobbied for Indian rights respectively.
written by a guest, October 04, 2010 14:19:58
-
- +15
-
-
written by Atheist, October 03, 2010 23:18:12
-
- +13
-
-
written by Better My, October 03, 2010 19:00:35
We must give anwar the benefit of the doubt.
What is 1-2 more years when PR has the full control of the government machinery, in the context fo 5 decades. Then the will of the rakyat will force the reforms and restoration of the damaged institutions. Then you should begin to see more changes. If not, everyone in MT wil be back to write in the bloigs to condemn PR as we condemn bn.
However any changes would have to be tempered with the of poltical expediency and ramification still. If you expecting ideal changes and ideal reforms in quick time, you are prabbably dreaming way ahead of your in your dream-time.
-
- +13
-
-
written by rotary power, October 03, 2010 16:12:23
-
- +4
-
-
written by rotary power, October 03, 2010 15:55:31
to those professional people of Malaysia who says they supports PKR you deserve to still stucks in Ruts and get ripped off by the wicked BN forever for being hypocrite and too chicken hearted in term of retailating and fight the criminal BN govt.Many are just commenting in this forum but scared of organising better ways to fight the busturd govt.Rpk has sacrifices a lot and even put his life in danger while most of these Malaysian still having second thought- what a shame Malaysian!!
-
- +25
-
-
written by doitanyway, October 03, 2010 15:32:22
BN is quietly happy watching the show whereas we the ordinary rakyat who has put our hopes in PR watch and suffer in frustration !
-
- +19
-
-
written by temenggong, October 03, 2010 11:03:49
-
- -17
-
-
written by hellosunshine, October 03, 2010 10:32:07
-
- +38
-
-
