TV PAKATAN RAKYAT

Anwar Ibrahim

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part 2


part 3


part 4


Azmin Ali

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Khalid Ibrahim

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Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today that Pakatan Rakyat was now ready to form the federal government after helming five states following the landmark 2008 election. He said that if the electoral pact had taken Putrajaya three years ago “we may have been careless” but governing the states it won three years ago provided a “training ground” for the fledgling coalition. “The party has struggled and suffered not one or two years, but over 10 years. If in 1999 we had won, we were not ready,” the PKR de facto leader (picture) said of the election that followed immediately after his sacking as deputy prime minister.

“In 2008, it was our first test to form state government. If we had formed federal government, we may have been careless. It is a training ground. “We cleaned out the defectors, the dirty things from the party,” he added, referring to the six MPs and five assemblymen who have left PKR since the 12th General Elections. Two assemblymen who left PKR in February 2009 had caused the fall of PR’s Perak administration. Anwar said that three years ago, the party had “no strength in Sarawak... Sabah was a mess.”

The Permatang Pauh MP said gains made in April’s Sarawak state election, where it increased its representation from one to three assemblymen, showed the party is “now twice as strong as in 2008.” “This is the best opportunity since 1957. This is the best opportunity for the people to rise up and change the system. “If it is really clean and democratic before the election, it is certain Barisan Nasional will lose easily,” he said of polls that the opposition has insisted must only come after electoral reforms currently being discussed by a parliamentary select committee.

Anwar said this when closing PKR’s national congress here, likely to be its last before a crucial election expected soon. He led an electoral pact with DAP and PAS in 2008 which made record gains, denying Barisan Nasional (BN) its customary two-thirds majority of Parliament after a record 82 opposition MPs were elected. ~themalaysianinsider.com~

PKR Youth dared Umno today to amend the federal constitution to state that the prime minister must be Malay. Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Akin said in his policy speech at the wing’s national congress here that this was because “history shows Umno is willing to sell out everything.” “To ensure that the last Malay stronghold, that is political power, is not traded away by Umno, we challenge Umno to amend the federal constitution to insert conditions and guarantees that the prime minister must be Malay. “The excuse that the post is held by a Malay because Umno is in power cannot be accepted. To cover up their evil, those who question them are accused of betraying Malays,” he told over 800 delegates.

He accused Umno of “endangering the interests and position of Malays... for their own gains.” Umno has repeatedly accused Pakatan Rakyat (PR) of selling out the Malays to Chinese and foreign interests, insisting that the Malays can only be protected if Barisan Nasional (BN) remains in power. Since the landmark Election 2008 where PR denied BN its customary two-thirds majority of Parliament and five state governments, the Malays have swung back towards the ruling coalition even as Chinese support for the federal opposition has increased. Racial tension has also heightened over the past few years especially with repeated allegations that Muslims are being proselytised.

Umno’s Utusan Malaysia accused the DAP earlier this year of conspiring with the church to turn Malaysia into a Christian state and install a Christian prime minister. A coalition of Muslim NGOs known as Himpunan Sejuta Umat (Gathering of a Million Faithful) has also organised several gatherings around the country to “rise up to the challenge of Christianisation.” Article 153 of the constitution grants the Agong di-Pertuan Agong responsibility to “safeguard the special position of the Malays” and has been interpreted by Malay rights groups to justify special privileges in the economy, religion and education.

~themalaysianinsider.com~