KUALA LUMPUR: About 50 PKR grassroots members gathered outside the party headquarters in Petaling Jaya today to protest against Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad using the PKR’s logo in the 14th General Election.
Ten policemen kept watch as they handed over a memorandum to a party representative and protested for about an hour.
PKR Bukit Gantang Deputy Youth Chief Muhamad Faisal Zainal said the protesters were from Selangor, Perak, Johor and Kedah.
“We are giving our leaders six days to remove Dr Mahathir from the list of our candidates. We will take action if they don’t,” he said at the 2.45pm protest, here, today.
Asked whether that would include drastic measures such as mass resignations from the party, Faisal said he would announce that later.
He reminded PKR leaders that the party was founded in 1999 in response to Dr Mahathir’s “cruel acts” against his then deputy, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“This is insulting to PKR and our members who struggled and sacrificed so much during the Reformasi era. Some even separated from their spouses. Everything we did would be meaningless if Dr Mahathir is not removed.”
Faisal claimed that they had the support of 120,000 grassroots leaders.
He said they had made their objection known to the party’s top leadership before Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) was provisionally dissolved over its failure to comply with the requirements of the Registry of Societies and before Dr Mahathir announced that PPBM candidates would be contesting under the PKR ticket.
However, he said, they were ignored.
Sabak Bernam PKR member M. Veerapan said many members were disappointed that an Emergency General Meeting was not held to get their consent prior to allowing Dr Mahathir and PPBM members to stand as candidates under PKR’s ticket.
“This is an insult to us and the party,” he said.
“We can accept DAP and Parti Amanah Negara, but not Dr Mahathir due to his tyranny and greed, as well as his rejection of PKR when he was prime minister. PPBM members are also former Umno members.
“Now that Barisan Nasional doesn’t want him, we pick him up and give him the chance to use our logo. This is madness.”
Veerapan added that, if the former prime minister felt he was “so great”, he should contest as an independent candidate.
“We challenge him to contest as an independent candidate like Datuk Dr Ibrahim Ali or Tan Sri Shahrir Samad (as they had contested that way in the past). Is he afraid?”
The protesters held posters and banners with messages such as “Don’t prostitute PKR to Tun Mahathir”.
Some posters referred to Dr Mahathir as “Mahafiraun” and “Mahazalim”, monikers which were used widely during the Reformasi movement of the late 1990s. Other banners called Dr Mahathir the “True Enemy of PKR” and said he had brought ruin to the country. — Reports by Mohd Azam Shah Yaacob, Veena Babulal and Rizanizam Abdul Hamid