E Contrario

Parti Keadilan Rakyat held its Annual Congress in Seremban on 25-27 May. The Youth and Women had their respective congresses on 25 May; followed by 2-day congress in which party election would be held.

Party workers raised flags and banners around Seremban town the night before the Youth/Women Congress. However the Seremban Urban Council removed all of them by the morning. The authorities always become very efficient when they come to deal with KeADILan.The town was cleaned of any traces of KeADILan Congress.

I recalled a few years ago during on of my trip to Jakarta, I was surprised to notice that the whole city was full of PAN flags. I became aware that Parti Amanat Nasional was having its congress at the time.

The government will do anything to wipe out our presence to the public. Although a few thousand KeADILan members assembled here, the main bulk of Seremban residents knew nothing about the Congress—its agenda, its debates and so on.

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The Congress for Angkatan Muda and Wanita was inaugurated by Deputy President Dr Syed Husin Ali. After the officiating speech by Dr Syed, Angkatan Muda and Wanita held their respective congresses.

The new leadership for the two wings was duly elected. Ezam’s absence was certainly felt in the Youth Wing. The new leaders in Youth have a hard job to match Ezam who towered so prominently since the founding of KeADILan. Many youth members missed his charisma, but I am sure our young activists will learn to lead their own way.

Wanita too underwent a change of guard. Fuziah Salleh who was the founding chief of the Women Wing too let off her post.

When KeADILan put forward the slogan “Time for Change”, we start with changing ourselves. To lead the people for change, our party leaders must change with time.

We are also proud that dispute all odds, the party is confident with our internal democracy. This is in contrast with the ruling parties—despite their vast power and resources, they dare not face internal party election due to the fear of breaking up prior to general election. We believe that we have the strength to withstand debate and competition. In fact, the process of debate, dissension and contest makes us stronger.

Part of Wanita’s agenda is to empower women, especially in political participation. KeADILan has a long standing policy of promoting women in party leadership. We set the target of minimum 30% women at all levels of party organisation. This year Wanita launched a vocal and visible campaign during the congress to raise awareness on this.

This will be a step forward to greater women’s participation in politics.