Healthy for Anwar, Rafizi to not see eye to eye, says PKR man

 

GE15 | Normally used as a house of prayer, Dream Centre drew more than its regular Sunday Service crowds to its auditorium yesterday night as it saw candidates for Subang, Petaling Jaya, Damansara and Segambut in conversation.

At times, a captivated audience of roughly 700 attendees would launch into prayer, hands raised, for candidates such as PKR’s Lee Chean Chung for Petaling Jaya.

Taking questions from the audience, incumbent Subang MP Wong Chen (above) was quizzed by a young audience member in her 20s on how the Pakatan Harapan coalition can be expected to run a government, should it return to power in this general election on Nov 19, when it appeared to be in ‘shambles’.

The question was posed in reference to the impact of the Sheraton Move on Harapan and ‘disagreements’ between PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and deputy president Rafizi Ramli on matters such as candidate line-up.

“PKR is not in shambles. After Azmin (Ali) left (during the Sheraton Move in 2020), it is a happy family now,” he said, pausing for a crack of applause in the auditorium.

“Anwar is my big boss, Rafizi is my little boss. They may not see eye to eye (all the time, but) that is healthy in a political party,” Wong added at the event held in Seksyen 13, Petaling Jaya.

Wong Chen with attendees at the Dream Centre event

In February 2020, Bersatu, led by its president Muhyiddin Yassin, exited the Harapan coalition, along with 11 MPs from PKR. This led to the fall of the 22-month Harapan government.

Candidates in attendance included former Kinrara state assemblyperson Kow Chong Wei from MCA and Petaling Jaya hopeful KJ John (independent).

Also speaking at the event were Damansara candidates Tan Gim Tuan (MCA) and Gobind Singh (DAP), and those contesting in Segambut; incumbent Hannah Yeoh and Gerakan’s Prabagaran Vythilingam.

All four seats - with the exception of Petaling Jaya, which is a mixed seat - are Chinese-majority seats, spanning around 51 to 69 square kilometres.

Among other matters raised at the talk were the Petaling Jaya Dispersal Link, asset declarations done by candidates and corruption.

PJD Link issue

On the PJD Link, Tan, who is also the Damansara MCA division chairperson, proposed the idea of holding an “MP-sponsored public referendum” for residents affected by the development of the highway.

MCA’s Damansara candidate Tan Gim Tuan

He suggested that upon doing so, the concessioners and developers involved in the project would be required to be more transparent on the figures behind the project, promoting transparency and better understanding among residents on the issue.

Tan declared that if he were to win the seat, the referendum would be held within 100 days of his service as Damansara MP.

It remains a concern that the proposed PJD Link highway is a revived version of the previously scrapped Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) project.

The Kidex project was intended to have been a 90 percent elevated expressway and was estimated to cost RM2.42 billion.

Work on it commenced in 2013 but the project was shut down in 2015, soon after Azmin Ali replaced Khalid Ibrahim as the Selangor menteri besar.

PJD Link was among three new highways that were approved in May this year to address congestion around Klang Valley, with the other two being the Bangi-Putrajaya Expressway (BPE) and the Kuala Lumpur Northern Dispersal Expressway (KL NODE). - Mkini