KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — PKR secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said that PKR had given the boot to 11,000 party members who were found to have backed its former party leaders involved in the Sheraton Move, which toppled the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, merely 22 months after it won Putrajaya.
In a livestream interview last night, Saifuddin said that PKR’s disciplinary committee had worked round the clock to identify and dismiss such members.
However, he expressed sadness that many had to be given the boot, reminiscing about the time PKR had struggled to recruit members to widen its base as a political party.
“Sheraton Move, like what Dr Zaliha also said earlier, the first impact we lost was a government that was legitimately elected through a democratic process… To the party meanwhile, we lost a number of senior leaders and in terms of party membership, we fired 11,000 members who went through the disciplinary process.
“The disciplinary committee was working overtime at that time. I still remember in the MPP (central leadership body), hot! The hottest topic. When we wanted to move forward, there were always blockades because if the MPP meeting is for three hours, two hours were for the disciplinary board’s report,” Saifuddin said, in the interview which was also attended by PKR’s election committee chairperson, Dr Zaliha Mustafa.
He said that the due processes, however, were duly followed in sacking all the members, including being given letters, being called up and given the chance to defend themselves.
“To me, even one member is very valuable because we know the difficulties to recruit people into PKR. In the beginning last time, just who wanted to join PKR? If you join, you will lose your job. If you run a business, you will lose your contract. If the husband is not harassed, the wife will be transferred to other workplaces, threats and all that. Difficult. We did not start with a big and majestic party, so the effect of (losing) the 11,000, to me it’s huge,” he said.
The interview was conducted in the run up to the PKR party polls set to take place next month, between April 22 and 29, while its national congress will happen on June 10 till June 12.
