Maria to contest under PKR banner
Non-party member gets parliamentary seat
KUALA LUMPUR: Prominent activist Maria Chin Abdullah is shedding the yellow of Bersih 2.0 for the blue and red of PKR – but not quite.
Maria is set to contest a parliamentary seat in the elections under the PKR banner. However, she has not joined the party. The announcement was made at PKR’s headquarters yesterday in the presence of party vicepresidents Nurul Izzah Anwar and Tian Chua, Wanita chief Zuraida Kamaruddin, Subang MP Sivarasa Rasiah and Pakatan Harapan chief secretary Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.
“I think this is an important moment for us because having someone like Maria representing civil society (will help) ensure the ideals of reform and our principles remain intact. This is really crucial in PKR’s tradition.
“When we first started in 1999, we have always given room to – and we were in turn boosted by – civil society leaders,” said Nurul Izzah.
However, Maria maintained she is not an official PKR member.
“This is the new politics that we are talking about. You don’t actually need to sign up for the party. That question, we can talk about it after the elections,” she said.
The press conference became heated when reporters quizzed further on why Maria did not join the party formally.
Tian Chua said the issue of whether Maria was a party member or not does not arise at this point of time.
“I think we don’t want to go into all this terminology. The main issue is we want people to participate in the elections.
“Let’s deal with the elections now. We have to keep our focus on winning,” he said.
Nurul Izzah also gave an assurance that every candidate contesting under the PKR banner would be subjected to the party’s principles.