SIBU, May 18: Fifteen Puncak Borneo PKR committee members resigned from the party effective today.
Its now former chairwoman, Iana Akam disclosed those opting out include the deputy chairman and senior committee members.
“We, the elected committee members of Puncak Borneo PKR Division, are announcing our resignations from the party and from all party posts which we presently hold,” she revealed in a statement.
She cited several reasons which prompted them to leave the party.
“The party’s national leadership in recent times seems no longer inclined to uphold and to live up towards the once trumpeted ideals of ‘Keadilan dan Kesaksamaan Untuk Semua’ (Justice and Equality For All), instead propelling the party’s president to the office of the prime minister of Malaysia became the overriding objective and in the process, key provisions in the party’s constitution, meant to promote and safeguard the principles of justice within the party were ignored,” she asserted.
Iana claimed the Puncak Borneo PKR committee members who resigned were also greatly concerned that the state leadership had been effectively prevented by the national leadership from living out the ideals and spirit of the Kuching Declaration of 2012 in running the party’s affairs in the state.
“We have concluded that the aspirations of the national leadership are no longer compatible with our aspirations for the rakyat in Sarawak. The highlight of this matter was proven during the state convention last year when the decision by the Sarawak MPN (state leadership council) chairman was ignored and overruled,” she added.
She revealed their decision to exit from PKR was because they need to stand up for themselves and their principles independent from influence by the national body.
Iana added she was deeply shocked when told that state MPN had given a directive to certain people to form a new line-up for the party’s Puncak Borneo branch when she was still its chairwoman.
“Despite the exit of Willie Mongin (Puncak Borneo MP) from the party, the ‘cabang’ (branch) line-up is still intact till today. This is not in line with Party Constitution Article 32.4 which the party has followed without fail,” she asserted.
“Before we arrived at our today’s decision, we had lengthy in-depth discussions with the other members of the ‘cabang’ leadership, friends and family. After thorough discussions, at least half or more of the members will also resign in due course,”she disclosed.
In moving forward, she added, should they choose to remain active in politics, their focus would be on native customary rights (NCR) land matters, corruption and the autonomy of Sarawak as an equal partner in the Federation of Malaysia.
“We thank the previous party leadership for giving us the platform to serve the community and the people of Sarawak. As for the time being, I will continue to serve the people to be best of my ability as a social activist for the people of Sarawak,” she concluded. — DayakDaily
