Parti KeAdilan Rakyat claim they are are about ‘justice’. It was formed from the spin off of mobstreet movement of ‘Reformasi’ in 1999 as Parti KeAdilan Nasional (PKN), when die-hard supporters of Anwar “Mat King Leather” Ibrahim was victimised when then Deputy Prime Minister was sacked from Government on 2 September 1998 for ‘sodomy’.
Then the drama begins. On top of the strategy to demonise the law enforcement agencies such as the Judiciary, Police, AG’s Chambers, MACC (then ACA) and so forth, KeAdilan also attacked that the electoral process was being rigged in favour of the ruling party. The Lunas by-elections in December 2000 saw the intense and immense attack on how the electoral process rigging was so real that the voters actually believed BN brought in ‘phantom voters’.
The bluff worked. So many bought into these lies and manipulation. During the 10th General Elections November 1999, BN suffered heavy losses when they had to meet the voters. They lost Terengganu and four Cabinet members bit the dust. Then Defense Minister Dato’ Seri Mohd. Najib Tun Razak narrowly won his Pekan seat by a 200 plus odd votes.
This strategy of lies, demonisation and manipulation of facts and sentiment of the voters were carried through, depsite BN successfully regained the 1999 losses in the March 2004 11th General Elections. One of the focus was again the electoral process. BERSIH was launched and massive rally was staged on 10 November 2007.
Again, the strategy worked. Coupled with the sheer weakness of PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s administration and excesses, the 12th General Elections on 8 March 2008 saw BN unprecedentedly lost 5 + 1 states and for the first time in history, did not manage to retain the 2/3 majority in the Dewan Rakyat.
PKR managed to improve its standing in the Dewan Rakyat by 3100%. The single Permatang Pauh seat is now joined by another 30 other seats. Despite gaining power and able to form a State Government in the richest state in the Federation, it did not stop the strategy to demonise and manipulate the electoral process.
Recently, PKR saw an intense ‘struggle’ for party positions. The focus is on the Deputy Presidential race. What thought to be a proxy fight between Azmin Ali (Anwar) Vs Zaid Ibrahim (Wan Azizah), became a complex situation when Vice President Mustapha Kamil Ayob decided to jump into the bandwagon and made it a three-cornered fight.
Of course, this did not come easy between the two largest warlords and their respective supporters and campaign machinery. They started their bitter fight and back stabbing against each other. It is so intense that so many quarters within PKR alleged rigging of nominations and results. Despite leading on the nominations from the ground, the struggle is so gripping that Zaid’s camp called for the Party Polls which started today to be halted and insist an investigation be carried out.
A PKR friendly portal reported this:
