Penggerak Komuniti Negara (PKN), the NGO associated with Bersatu supreme council member Azmin Ali, expects all 300,000 of its members to officially join the party by June.
Its chairperson Nor Hizwan Ahmad told Malaysiakini that PKN members have started joining Bersatu in stages.
With the party constitution recently amended to accommodate setting up more branches, he said, they expect the registration process to be much faster.
"PKN now has about 300,000 members nationwide. And we are gathering more.
"We target that by mid this year, all (PKN members) would be Bersatu members. Our members have started to join Bersatu in stages through its divisions (nationwide)," said Hizwan, who is also the political secretary to Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin.
As of Jan 1, Bersatu has about 600,000 members, according to party secretary-general Hamzah Zainudin.
Malaysiakini contacted Hizwan for comments after several Umno leaders accused Bersatu of poaching its members despite both parties being allies in supporting the Perikatan Nasional (PN) federal government.
Umno supreme council member Razlan Rafii claimed that Bersatu is poaching members allegedly because its top leadership was afraid Azmin's influence may be growing stronger in Bersatu.
He alleged that Bersatu's top leadership tried to suppress Azmin and Zuraida supporters from joining the party en masse because of this.
"Why didn't Bersatu allow the followers of Azmin and Zuraida to be absorbed into Bersatu? Are they afraid that Azmin and Zuraida can take over control of the party when they bring in hundreds of thousands of their supporters?
"But at the same time, they (top leadership) want to assert their influence by growing the number of Bersatu members, by taking members from Umno and PAS," Razlan told Malaysiakini.
For the record, Azmin and Zuraida were PKR deputy president and vice-president, respectively. Both of them were sacked by the party last year after taking part in the so-called 'Sheraton Move' political coup, which led to the fall of Pakatan Harapan as the federal power in February 2020.
In August that year, Azmin and Zuraida officially joined Bersatu, before party president Muhyiddin Yassin appointed them into its supreme council the next month.
When asked about what Razlan said, Hizwan denied there were attempts to stop PKN members from joining Bersatu.
However, he admitted there were some "hiccups" last year when the Bersatu constitution then restricted the number of party branches that can be set up. It stipulated that the number of branches is limited to the number of voting districts in an area.
Hizwan said the party constitution had since been amended, and the number of branches is no longer capped.
"So far, the process of PKN members joining Bersatu is going well. If there are hiccups here and there, that is normal.
"What is important now is that the new Bersatu constitution allows the opening of new branches without being restricted to the number of voting districts.
"The number used to be restricted. Maybe at that time, there were some hiccups," he said.
On claims that Bersatu is poaching Umno members, Hizwan challenged the party to prove it.
He also stressed that it is the right of every individual to choose whichever political party they want to join.
"Bersatu has been successful in attracting the interest of Malaysians by featuring fresh leaders, who have no controversies nor implicated with abuse of power.
"The leadership and political skills shown by Bersatu in serving the people gives a breath of fresh air in Malaysia's political landscape," he said, adding that other parties need to review their political ideology and doctrine, instead of blaming others including former party members who want to join Bersatu.
PKN, reportedly launched in July last year, is one of four NGOs that were set up last year that are said to be affiliated with former PKR leaders loyal to Azmin. The other NGOs are Pemuda Negara, Wanita Muda Negara, and Nation of Women (NOW).
In August, Azmin pledged the support of over 200,000 grassroots supporters for Bersatu in an event that rallied the NGOs, announcing that they are joining Bersatu. - Mkini
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