Aspiring candidates for forthcoming by-elections can rightly express their interest in being candidates but “that’s about as far as it goes”. They should never ever allow themselves to get carried away in the process and degenerate into literally “crying, begging, pleading and threatening for seats. It’s shameful.”

This advice comes from PKR vice-president Dr Jeffrey Kitingan in the wake of widespread reports that aspiring candidates not only among the Pakatan Rakyat members but also the Barisan Nasional have intensively started lobbying for seats in Kedah and Perak.

kitingan project ic 250107 jeffery kitingan “We need to follow certain guidelines when selecting candidates,” said Jeffrey. “While any Tom, Dick and Harry can express his interest in contesting, we cannot choose just about anyone to represent the coalition. The wrong choice of candidate would spell disaster at the polls. This factor cannot be stressed enough.”

The political tsunami of Sat March 8 last year, pointed out Jeffrey, was the result of Pakatan being very careful, among others, with its choice of candidates while “the BN, especially in Peninsular Malaysia, fielded the same old, tired faces that should have been put out to pasture a long time ago”.

“We were very careful with our choices in Sabah too but there were many factors against us.”

The opposition alliance took five states and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur last year. However, Perak fell to the BN in recent days after the sultan refused to allow the dissolution of the state assembly after three seats were declared vacant by the Speaker. Instead, he allowed the BN to wrest the reins of the state government by including the three seats in the numbers game of 28 Plus 3. Pakatan has 28 seats as well and could have functioned at least until the next state assembly meeting in April or within the next six months, and even beyond, but fate struck a cruel blow when the sultan allegedly took a partisan stand. The coalition sees looming legal challenges and court battles as “the silver lining in the clouds”.

‘Heads I win, tails you lose’ policy

Jeffrey will be urging that the lessons which can be drawn from “the ongoing political crisis in Perak” should also be taken into consideration by his coalition leaders and members in the choice of candidates for forthcoming by-elections.

“The main thing that we should remember is that the BN has a heads I win, tails you lose policy. They have revived this policy with a vengeance of late in order to remain a winners club of frogs by hook or crook, as rightly pointed out Anwar, as in yester years,” said Jeffrey. “We don’t want candidates who, after winning, can easily cave into BN’s dirty tactics. A candidate must be able to withstand all sorts of pressures including being kidnapped by others. Kidnappings, disappearances and killings have become part of the new political culture in Malaysia.”

“We cannot continue to be in a state of denial. We have seen before our very eyes, the organs of state usurped by the powers-that-be for narrow political ends. It’s shameful but that’s the way it is.”

bn supreme council mt meeting sapp sabah issue 190608 pairin kitingan He cited the 1984 by-election in Tambunan which his elder brother, Joseph Pairin Kitingan, had to re-contest after an undated letter of resignation was sent to the speaker by then chief minister Harris Salleh and the Elections Commission quickly accepted that a vacancy had occurred. Pairin had been expelled earlier from the ruling Berjaya for raising several issues including creeping Islamisation and Federalisation of Sabah that were troubling the KadazanDusunMurut majority in particular and large sections of other Sabahans.

“There is an element of double standards here when considering recent events in Perak,” said Jeffrey. “Let me tell you that the doctrine of separation of powers is dead in Malaysia. The judiciary is firmly under the thumb of the executive. We can see this from the postponements of the corruption cases against the two errant state assemblypersons in Perak. Who really decides on the postponements?”

The question that arises is what kind of candidate has all the criteria that Pakatan Rakyat has in mind.

Honesty, including being punctual and meeting deadlines is among the first attributes of potential candidates that come to mind, according to Jeffrey

Also, the candidates must be positive-minded in the Obama mould, root for the brightest and best, have a tertiary education, have leadership qualities, have public speaking skills preferably in several languages.

Concerned for the future

In addition, aspiring candidates must be able to get along with people, popular with the people and party members, know how to handle the media who believe that only bad news is good news, are in good health, scandal-free, disciplined and have the interest of the party at heart at all times.

Finally, they must be full of energy, willing and able to work all the waking hours for all, willing to keep the door open, give a hearing to all, keep the lines of communication open at all times, interact with their surroundings at all times i.e. extroverts; and have a record of serving the public in that particular locality for the past five years or more and will not do the disappearing act after the elections only to re-appear with the people when the polls come again.

“It cannot, of course, be all too technical and rated only according to a points systems via a computer programme,” warned Jeffrey. “There must be an element of subjectivity. Who can really tell what is in the hearts of aspiring candidates? How do you measure commitment? They may have skeletons in their cupboard which makes them easy prey for blackmail like in Perak and Kedah, for example.”

“I did party hop of course but I have always been very principled and consistent in my politics. The statements made against me by PBS vice-president Hebert Timbon Lagadan in the papers in recent days are not true. My struggle has always been to right what is wrong based on the principles of justice, fairness and democracy. No one can claim that I have abandoned these principles. I am only interested in a political vehicle which subscribes to these principles. We will continue with our struggle in the next generation and, if need be, the one after that because sometimes we cannot achieve something overnight.”

The question of abandoning his brother Pairin does not arise, added Jeffrey, as they still remain brothers despite their differences in political approach. “I am concerned with the future. Herbert is bogged down by the past.”

In the case of Pakatan Rakyat, there’s no dispute over which party gets to contest where despite mainstream media reports, assures Dr Jeffrey, but not with the BN where both Umno and MIC seems deadlocked over the Bukit Selambau state seat in Kedah which “belongs” to the latter. Should Umno get the seat to represent the BN, Pakatan will be placed in an unassailable position, according to Jeffrey.

“To be fair to Umno, we think that MIC cannot win Bukit Selambau. But neither can Umno win, especially by annoying MIC, although they can probably do better than the latter. Whoever contests, victory will be ours for the taking, come polling day not only in Bukit Selambau but also in the other by-elections. The mood of the people is definitely against BN, Umno in particular and people like Najib.”