It is now one full month since the announcement by the Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be the Pakatan Rakyat candidate in the Kajang by-election which will be held in three weeks’ time on March 23, 2014.
In the past 31 days, political temperatures and election fervor had steadily mounted, with a whole slate of issues, national, state and local, being canvassed.
The Kajang by-election promises to be the “by-election of the century” in Malaysia, deciding not only on who will be the elected representative of the Selangor state assembly seat of Kajang, the political leadership in Selangor but most important of all, the political configuration of the federal centre of power in Putrajaya in the immediate future.
The by-election on March 23 will not only determine the future of Kajang and Selangor, but the future of Malaysia and her 30 million people – not only for 2014 but for the coming years and decades.
All the three Pakatan Rakyat parties of PKR, PAS and DAP must be fully united and inspired by the common goal of creating a new Malaysia where all her citizenry, regardless of race, religion or region, are united with one common vision for an united, harmonious, free, democratic, just, competitive, progressive and prosperous Malaysia.
The three Pakatan Rakyat parties of PKR, PAS and DAP must not only ensure that Datuk Seri Anwar wins in the Kajang by-election on March 23, but wins with a resounding and thunderous majority which will immediately send out a message to all nooks and corners of Malaysia that Putrajaya awaits change in the 14GE.
Just a simple victory in Kajang is a defeat. We must aim for a historic victory, which will redound to greater political and electoral achievements and accomplishments in the years rolling up to the end of this decade.
There are however reasons for concern at some of the developments in Pakatan Rakyat and PKR in Selangor in the past month.
Datuk Seri Anwar’s real enemies in Kajang by-election are not the independent candidates, MCA or even UMNO but PR/PKR internal feuds and infighting.
We must never forget what Abraham Lincoln said: A house divided against itself cannot stand!
In the Kajang by-election, we can only suffer defeats and setbacks of our own making.
At stake in the Kajang by-election is not just Anwar’s personal political future, but the future of Pakatan Rakyat, three million Selangorians and 30 million Malaysians.
Let us face up to the harsh reality that a defeat in the Kajang by-election – in failing to achieve a resounding and historic victory – cannot be ruled out.
It is imperative that all the three Pakatan Rakyat parties of PKR, PAS and DAP must take immediate measures to close ranks, put aside our differences, ensure that we do not shoot ourselves in the foot and deny our children and children’s children the one chance in more than half-a-century for political change in Putrajaya.
(Media Statement in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, 28th February 2014)