PKR's democracy, a kind of modernized party politics

Previously, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) became the first political party in our nation to open up the elections of its national, state and divisional leadership to all its ordinary party members.

The move was eventually welcomed by its party members and supporters as a step towards a multi-democratic way of choosing their party leaders via direct elections right from the branch, division, state to the top ones national level.

It was in fact a move that had never came into the minds of most political parties all this while. The move was symbolized as an open democracy and the beginning of the modernization of party politics.

According to the PKR's leadership, this move was to prevent money politics and manipulation of party delegates by certain influential party leaders to dominate party elections with funds and bribery.

However, the open and transparent democratic process in the PKR's party elections had turned into an open battle between opposing leaders and almost all its contending leaders are launching onslaughts against one another in open.

News and reports of the ongoing PKR divisional elections had also appear in newspapers and online news portals almost daily and for some, became hot topics for weeks and some even months. Some are also seen to be damaging the party's reputation which has been reported widely in pro-BN or Umno newspapers.

So, this is what we call open democracy, which is transparent and made known to all in the general public, instead of a close door meeting, where limited and sometimes inaccurate reports were made on certain events.

Is this kind of democracy good for PKR? According to Selangor Mentri Besar and former state party liaison chairman Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, it would eventually make the party mature. And this is a question that every PKR members, its supporters and voters are asking. Does PKR's open democracy includes washing dirty linens in the public? Does it also includes an all out open confrontation between its contending leaders vying for top party posts?

Well, it actually provides the general public a very good view on how a real new party politics is about, how they work, its process from within, its members and how it would later affect and shape the future of our nation if they were to successfully gain Putrajaya in the next general election.

And for PKR itself, the party leadership may want to send a strong message to voters and its supporters their quest for a strong democratic base by demonstrating that its party members enjoy their democratic rights to elect and choose their leaders of all levels, thus convincing the public that democracy in PKR is very much alive as compare to the others.

As we all had knew, most of the political parties, particularly Umno, MCA, Gerakan, MIC, PAS, PBS, PPP, LDP or DAP still maintain its old electoral system of having only ordinary members electing their delegates to the division at branch levels and later the branch delegates would select the division delegates.

The division delegates would then elect delegates to the state annual general meetings, where the later would then decide certain number of delegates to attend the national delegate conference.

In certain parties, besides the delegates elected from limited situations, the branch chairmen are also automatically the sole branch representatives to the party's national conferences. In this scenario the voting rights of ordinary party members only lies in a limited manner at branch meetings.

These situations are not really direct democracy at all. Comparing to PKR, its ordinary party members now come in full force to demonstrate their democratic rights in their branch, division, state and national level elections. The PKR members got to enjoy such rights, where ordinary members of other political parties had never have before.

Therefore, a grieve question now arise. Do you want an open democracy where you could see all or a limited one where you do not always get what you want or your opportunities are limited to only the lowest level?

Whether you like it or not or even if it really does pose some negative impacts on the party, it is a real bold step towards a modernization of party politics in our nation.

Yes, it is something new, but our people will somehow have to accept the reality and adapt to it eventually. It is a positive move to improve and change from the old to a new order in our lives.

By the way, whether or not PKR has the future now lies in the hands of its own party members, they had elected their leaders via all levels and now their votes are on the way to the national level in order to determine the next line of top leaders who will then move the party forward.

When the party members had voted and the leaders are elected, let them fit into their shoes, move forward and we shall see if they are performing or otherwise.

For all the crisis in PKR now, do not blame it on their leaders and the way the party is being run. It is a new process, they are undergoing a political modernization, heading their way to gain maturity to adapt to a drastic change that they had earlier decided to do.

Those who choose to be stagnant and avoid change would only end up nowhere but only to find themselves in the same hole they had dug with their heads still inside decades ago.