Selling durians to assist a cash-strapped independent news portal. This is what the DAP will be doing from 3pm to 9pm on June 26, through its ‘Merdeka Review Durianthon' fund-raising campaign.

It will be held along Durian Street in Petaling Jaya's SS2 enclave and those who wish to taste the delicious durians the party promises will have to bring along coupons that they can purchase beforehand.

The organisers will have 10 tonnes of durians in hand, DAP Selangor exco member Ronnie Liu said, adding that the money raised would go to aid Merdeka Review , which provides news on the Internet in English and Bahasa Malaysia, after deducting the costs incurred.

NONE He said the organisers have already prepared 2,000 coupons for the event, which would be sold at RM30 each.

Liu said he decided to choose the durian as the theme for the fund-raising event because it was a highly popular Malaysian fruit and would attract a lot of people to join the campaign.

"This can also bring support from the people who just merely want to support Merdeka Reivew . They can buy the coupons without eating the durian," he told a press conference today.

Those who want to buy the coupons for the ‘durianthon' can contact Merdeka Review at 03-7960 1831, Daniel at 016-219 9580 or Dariff Din, who is the assistant to DAP Kampung Tunku assemblyman Lau Weng San, at 016-280 7667.

Merdeka Review

was to have shut down early this month, but it managed to raise about RM200,000 through donation drives, enabling it to extend its operations for another two-and-a-half months.

It needs about RM60,000 a month to sustain the website and is hoping to raise RM300,000 to keep it going for six months in order to buy time for discussions with long-term investors.

Liu confident local council polls will work out

On another matter, Liu expressed confidence that a pilot project for local council elections to the Petaling Jaya City Council would gain support from the ratepayers.

He rejected talk that the turnout for the local council elections would be low as the legitimacy of the elections was questionable.

"No, many people have already said that they are willing to try, to participate," he said.

The Pakatan Rakyat Selangor government initiative, which is still in the proposal stage, calls for only 30 percent of the 24 posts of PJ city councillors to be open for election, with the other 70 percent kept for political parties.

Liu said the city council was currently studying how to conduct the elections and he hoped the pilot project would kick off by end of this year.