At the Pakatan Rakyat National Convention today

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The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) National Convention was held this morning at the Dewan Milenium, Kepala Batas, Seberang Perai Utara, Penang.

About 2,500 delegates and observers from PR component parties, DAP, PKR and PAS attend today's one day event, which saw prominent PR leaders PKR's Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, Dr Wan Azizah Ismail and Tian Chua; DAP's Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh and Lim Guan Eng; and PAS' Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, Datuk Nasharuddin Mat Isa and Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin present at today's national convention which strengthened their commitment to uphold the Pakatan Rakyat coalition in face of the possible snap general election next year.

I attended the national convention today as a delegate. In the convention, I managed to meet up and had chats with some local and outstation party leaders like Sdr Phee Boon Poh (DAP Sungai Puyu, Bagan), Sdr A.Thanasekharan (DAP Bagan Dalam, Bagan), Sdr Lim Hock Seng (DAP Bagan Jermal, Bagan), Sdr Neelamekan (DAP Lunas, Kulim), Sdr Tan Kim Huat (PKR Pasir Putih, Perak) and some local PAS leaders. The chats were very fruitful as I was able to gain some information on the political situations of the respective areas.

At the convention, representatives of the PR state governments of Selangor, Penang, Kedah and Kelantan also opened their information booths to public and distributed their respective newsletters and publications to the delegates.

Besides, DAP, PKR and PAS representatives also opened their respective souvenir stalls selling party badges, stickers, banners and books. I managed to collect some of the four PR state governments' publications and booklets for reading and found them to be useful input for our people.

The national convention's theme today called for "Change Now, Save Malaysia" or in Malay, "Ubah Sekarang, Selamatkan Malaysia". The much awaited PR Policy Framework was also launched at the convention which underlined the following agendas:

1. A restructure on institutions such as the Elections Commission (EC), the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the Royal Malaysian Police. During a debate on the policy framework, DAP’s Anthony Loke also said PR will put the MACC under the purview of Parliament;

2. A repeal of the Internal Security Act (ISA);

3. Instruct Khazanah Berhad, Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) and other government bodies to take over highway assets from the concessionaires in order to abolish the toll system;

4. A restructure of the country’s subsidies, to lessen subsidies given to the private sector (such as the RM19 billion in gas subsidies given to independent power producers) and transferring these to subsidies for the man on the street;

5. Acknowledging the role and sacrifices of civil servants by studying the current pay schemes and increasing the incentives for teachers by RM500 a month;

6. Transferring private water concessions to the government;

7. Offering free wireless Internet access to those in urban and semi-urban areas;

8. Cancelling Felda Plantations and opening up its farms to second- and third generation of Felda settlers;

9. Increasing oil royalty payments to Sabah, Sarawak, Terengganu and Kelantan to 20 per cent from 5 per cent currently;

10. Formation of a Royal Commission to solve the problem of illegal immigrants and citizenship issues in Sabah and Sarawak.

The national convention adjourned at about 5.30 pm today.

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