6TH PKR CONGRESS PKR speakers from all across the country tickled the delegates’ funny bone, but no one held the court better than Bukit Selambau assemblyperson S Manikumar.

At one point strongly rumoured to be leaving the party, Manikumar reiterated and stressed his loyalty to PKR, the party which had fielded him in last year’s by-election.

NONE Pointing to his PKR uniform, he said: “This shirt is mine, and no one can make me throw it away. Don’t even try to fight and challenge me. I have a black belt in taekwondo, you know.

“I will not move, not even an inch. PKR’s struggle is my struggle,” he said to thunderous applause from the 2,000 delegates at the party’s sixth annual congress in Kota Bharu this morning.

This was the second time that Manikumar publicly pledged his loyalty while denouncing speculation that he, along with three other Kedah state assembly representatives, would defect.

But instead of a sombre tone which he adopted in the mammoth ceramah in Kedah last Saturday, he was near comical when speaking at the session for multi-racial leaders in the party, even impersonating embattled MIC president S Samy Vellu at one point.

NONE Manikumar also revealed that he had been “wooed” by certain “gangs”. Although he did not name names, it was clear that he was referring to BN agents.

“These gangs came to me - you know who. And they asked me to join them. I asked them whether I could be Umno Youth chief, MIC president, or MCA president. They all scratched their heads and did not know how to reply.

“So I told them, PKR is a multi-racial party which fights for the rights of all races,” he said to cheers and whoops of support from the party delegates.

Flies and mosquitoes

Manikumar once again blamed the media for manipulating his words to pit him against the state Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak.

“When (Bakar Arang assemblyperson Tan Wei Shu) resigned from the party two weeks ago, everyone thought I would be next. Within one hour, reporters came to my house like flies asking me what I thought of it.

“And when I said that the reason a lawmaker would defect has to be studied because they could be unhappy with the state administration, they twisted my words and said that I was picking a fight with Azizan,” said Manikumar.

NONE “Why would I want to leave the party? About 12,600 people voted for me. I had to battle 14 other candidates in the by-election - all contesting under strange logos like irons and umbrellas,” he said.

Keeping the crowd enthralled with his anecdotes and his thick northern Malay brogue, he had the delegates in stitches as he recounted his misadventures in travelling to Kota Bharu for the congress.

“I arrived in Kota Bharu at 3.30 this morning, went to 20 hotels and they all told me that there were no vacancies. I had to park my car on a bridge by the roadside and sleep with the mosquitoes as friends.

“I came to Kota Bharu to donate blood,” he quipped, drawing laughter from the gallery.

'Don't abuse power'

But adopting a more serious tone, Manikumar said that there were problems with the implementation of policies in a “particular” Pakatan-Rakyat-led state.

NONE “To be honest, I am worried about the policies in one of the Pakatan states. If it is possible, there should be a collective voice in agreeing on a common policy among all Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers,” he said.

He however stopped at that. Manikumar said that it would be more harmful to air his grouses publicly to the media.

“I am dissatisfied to see some leaders who went down this road,” said Manikumar, who spoke off-the-cuff during his entire speech.

Another speaker from the session, Perak’s Chang Lih Kang also took some Pakatan state governments to task, saying that there were also elements of power abuse by them.

“I still see them giving projects during by-elections, and the official cars of excos zipping around during the campaigning period. This will cause us to lose the moral high ground.

“Even if we lose in by-elections, it is acceptable. But never lose our pride and dignity,” he said, urging the party leadership to put an end to such activities.

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