Zulkifli Noordin Sacked: PKR's Cancer is Finally Removed

PKR Sacks Zulkifli Noordin



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PKR sacked its controversial Kulim-Bandar Bharu MP Zulkifli Noordin today in a move to rid the party of a lawmaker who has become a major liability for the Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

It has also urged the outspoken MP to vacate his parliamentary seat as he had won it under a PKR ticket in the March 2008 elections.

The decision was reached this evening when the party’s supreme council made a unanimous decision to endorse the recommendations made by the disciplinary board.

The meeting today was chaired by party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. Her husband, Anwar Ibrahim, who is also the PKR de facto leader was also present along with deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali.

At a press conference following the supreme council meeting, party secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution said that the decision to sack Zulkifli was unanimous.

By sacking Zulkifli, the party has opted to cut off the wound which has been left festering for over a year.

PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution said,

"The Board recommended the sacking on the basis that Zulkifli’s act of lodging a police report against fellow Pakatan Rakyat MP Khalid Samad and speaking out against the party in a TV interview had contravened with Article 27 of the party’s constitution.

Article 27 encompasses disciplinary matters involving following the orders of the party, defending the good name of the party as well as respecting the decisions made by the party. So this is the very basis of the decision to sack him.

However, in view of the severity of his actions, the board decided that this was the best punishment. All factors involving Zulkifli’s actions were taken into consideration and the board has also analysed the merits of his case.

At the end of the day, the most important thing is that the principle of party above self should be placed first.

We acknowledge that by endorsing this sacking, it would mean the PKR has one less MP in the Parliament.

But if this is the price we have to pay to defend the party’s name as well as our over 500,000 members, then we are prepared to do it”

Saifuddin said that the council had also decided to appoint stand-in MPs at all the four parliamentary constituencies where it no longer had its MPs.

Related Article

Zulkifli Noordin's Sacking - Better Late Than Never

by

Terence Netto

Excerpts

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One of the longest running acts of political effrontery in Malaysian public life ended today when Zulkifli Noordin, PKR MP for Kulim Bandar Baru, was booted out of the party by its supreme council.

There must have been a huge sigh of relief among PKR members.

While it lasted, the BN must have enjoyed the spectacle of Zulkifli's brazen taunting of PKR to take action against him, and when it hesitated to do so, the harm that that did to its public image as a party of moderation and consensual wisdom on matters religious.

Until today, a constipated PKR appeared to find it next to impossible to give this affront to its principles and premises the sack after Zulkifli had first invited it to do so by the impudence of his disruptive behaviour at a Bar Council forum to discuss religious conversions in 2008.

At each demonstration of PKR's hesitation to act, Zulkifli added another frisson to his insouciance until his demand that the disciplinary panel sitting in overall judgment of him be entirely composed of Muslims when adjudicating his stand on the 'Allah' issue placed him beyond the beyond.

Sometimes the brazen seek proof of their freedom to disport by exercising a license to go too far, and as fear grows among enforcers, they double and redouble the stakes on the wheel of their impudence. In this way, they make their destruction inevitable.

PKR would have self-destructed if they had allowed Zulkifli's strange ride to continue unabated.