PKR fighting for justice without justice within — Karim

 

Posted on January 4, 2011, Tuesday

Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah

KUCHING: Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, chief political secretary to the Chief Minister, yesterday chided Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) for claiming to fight for justice while failing to dispense justice within the party itself.
He reminded PKR vice-president Baru Bian to ‘cakap mesti mau serupa bikin’ (walk the talk) and not hoodwink the rakyat by brushing aside fundamental issues in PKR as petty issues.
“How can you claim to fight for justice, good governance and transparency when you and your party are not practising it?” he asked in reference to the many unresolved internal PKR issues as claimed by several party former leaders like Datuk Zaid Ibrahim and Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan.
Baru, who is also PKR Sarawak chief, when asked last Sunday to comment on the resignation of Jeffrey said the party would not lose its strength in Sarawak.
He believed voters in Sarawak would still vote for PKR and Pakatan Rakyat for a change in government as there were more important issues like land rights and the need for better infrastructure to look into.
“Whether it will affect the ground support or not, it’s just speculation (at the moment). The bottom line is bread-and-butter issues for the people,” said Baru.
Karim, who is Asajaya assemblyman and State Barisan Nasional Backbenchers chairman, pointed out that Baru and PKR could not brush aside fundamental issues against the party.
“This (brushing issues aside) reflects the kind of struggle of the PKR leaders, and I am not surprised many are disillusioned and leaving the party in droves,” he said.
Meanwhile the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu vice-youth chief Pandi Suhaili said voters should be wary of a party like PKR which claimed to fight for justice but in reality was merely being power-crazy.
He pointed out that many hardcore supporters of the party that breathed life into the pro-reform movement that eventually resulted in the creation of PKR, were leaving to form their own rival organisations.
“All of them are distancing themselves from the party because PKR has failed to keep its promises,” he said, adding Jeffrey was among those who had become disillusioned with the party due to broken promises.
He said those who continued to support PKR despite its grave failure to address fundamental issues in the party, were making themselves political laughing stock.
“May be PKR should change its ‘Justice for All’ slogan to ‘Justice for Some’ in view of the latest development in the party,” he said.
Among the reasons behind Jeffrey’s resignation was his unhappiness over the party’s deployment of West Malaysian leaders in Sabah and Sarawak.
Meanwhile, former hardcore Pakatan supporters like blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin and lawyer Haris Ibrahim have all formed rival organisations to compete with Pakatan, arguing that Pakatan had failed to carry out promised reforms.
Former PKR heavyweight Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has resigned from PKR citing unhappiness over the party’s failure to take actions over his allegations of votes rigging during the last party’s election.
He is now president of Parti Kesejahteraan Insan Tanah Air (Kita).
Another headache for PKR was the announcement by Hindraf leaders who are led by lawyer P Uthayakumar that they would contest in 15 parliamentary and 38 state seats. Nearly all these seats were held by Pakatan.