KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — Datuk Marzuki Yahya has defended the move of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia's (Bersatu) grassroots members who posted the monochrome version of the party's logo on social media as a symbolic act of protest.
Marzuki, who has insisted that he is still Bersatu's secretary-general said the blackout does not violate any of the provisions of Bersatu's party constitution but rather it is the responsibility of party members to defend the principles of the party.
“Bersatu was established for various goals to do good for the nation and to strengthen the agenda of combating corruption, abuse of power and to bring about good governance practices that is clean, trustworthy and with integrity.
“So how can Hamzah (Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin) question the issue of the logo when he himself was involved with moves to sacrifice the party's principles?” said Marzuki.
Marzuki was responding to Hamzah Zainuddin's warning to party members who posted the blackout logo that action can be taken against them.
Marzuki added that the logo reflected a serious expression of opposition from the party's grassroots members who were still in support of disputed chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and are in favour of principled leaders.
“The blackout logo is a serious expression of opposition from the grassroots members and is one of their ways to show that they want the party to be led by those who remain principled and wish for it to return to its original goals,” he said in a statement yesterday.
He also urged Hamzah to revisit and review the goals and objectives of the party, since the latter had only joined Bersatu only for a short period of time ― after the party was formed and won in the 14th General Election.
Yesterday, Hamzah reportedly said that those who posted the blackout logo did not love the symbol of their own party and that the logo should be defended by every party member instead of mocking it.
On June 16, several Bersatu supporters of Dr Mahathir launched a 'blackout' campaign by changing the party logo's red background to black and uploaded it on social media sites.
Bersatu leaders supportive of Dr Mahathir, including his son and disputed deputy president Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir, and disputed Youth chief Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman have also joined in, posting the blacked out flag on their social media accounts immediately after organisers launched the campaign last night.
Malay Mail understands that the campaign was the brainchild of grassroot members from the party’s Selangor chapter.
The campaign also comes ahead of a court hearing tomorrow, where Dr Mahathir and his faction filed a lawsuit to challenge Bersatu’s termination of their memberships, besides also seeking compensation.
The application has since been thrown out by the High Court yesterday.
