Raja Petra inspired 'third force' for Malaysian politics

By Luke Rintod

KOTA KINABALU: A freshly minted grouping called the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) is set to elbow its way onto the political stage.

MCLM is due to be launched in London on Sunday, Dec 12, at an event called Forum MCLM.

The forum is to be co-hosted by popular exiled blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin and two ardent promoters of civil society, Yolanda Augustin and Farouk A Peru

MCLM, it is learnt, will unveil its twin declarations called The People's Voice and The People's Declaration at the event.

Both declarations will outline MCLM's philosophy, aims and strategies to achieve what it called a truly democratic and transparent nation of Malaysia.

It will also reveal the names of some of its pioneer candidates plucked from various civil society movements in Malaysia who have volunteered to be candidates from a "third force" in the coming general election.

Farida Ibrahim, an associate of MCLM and leader of a movement called Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia (SABM), in an emailed statement called on Malaysians in London to attend the forum on Sunday at 1pm GMT at the Holiday Villa Hotel in Leinster Gardens, London.

Mission and statement

MCLM mission and statement:

"MCLM envisions a nation that has fully realised the aspirations of our founding fathers that Malaysia be a nation founded upon the principles of liberty and justice, her people bound together by a unity of purpose and imbibed with self-belief, to make Malaysia a land of prosperity and peace, ever seeking the welfare and happiness of its people and the maintenance of a just peace among all nations.

"The Federal Constitution of 1957 guarantees all citizens of, first, Malaya and, later, Malaysia, the rights and liberties accorded to all free men of all democratic nations and provides for the establishment of institutions of state to secure and safeguard those liberties.

"The existence and application of draconian laws in the context of a systemic failure on the part of many of those institutions to honour their duty to uphold, protect and preserve the Federal Constitution has resulted in those guaranteed rights and liberties becoming, for many, illusory.

"We believe that many Malaysians desire changes and reforms as comprehensively laid out in The People’s Voice and The People’s Declaration. The MCLM aims to take a leading role in realising these aspirations and encouraging the wider participation of civil society in shaping the future of our nation."

It is learned, the MCLM has discounted working with the ruling Barisan Nasional(BN) coalition.

It is also reliably learnt that the movement, which seeks to introduce new political cultures, may work with the Pakatan Rakyat if the latter is interested to accommodate MCLM's philosophy, and accept some of its preferred candidates. - FMT