KUALA LUMPUR, 19 FEB: Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will be launching a 13th General Election (GE-13) campaign manifesto thus putting them in the lead ahead of Umno-BN, which until now has failed to announce the date of the election.
Themed ‘Pakatan Harapan Rakyat’ (translated to ‘The People’s Alliance of Hope’), the manifesto dubbed the ‘People’s Manifesto’ shows that PR is ready to launch a ‘war’ against Umno-BN in efforts to change the reins of the nation’s administration towards a better future.
This manifesto which was endorsed by the Pakatan Rakyat Presidential Council is a joint manifesto of the three parties which is made up of four core themes: People in Brotherhood, People’s Economy, People’s Well-being and People’s Government.
PKR Strategy Director, Rafizi Ramli in a press conference said that the People’s Manifesto combines all policies based of the Pakatan Rakyat’s Common Policy, the Orange Book and specific programmes which were announced through the Pakatan Rakyat 2012 and 2013 Budgets.
“The Policy and PR Manifesto Committee which was tasked with developing the People’s Manifesto also examined and took views from the memorandum and recommendations delivered directly to the Pakatan Rakyat leadership to be instilled in the Manifesto.
“Apart from that, various consultations have been carried out with various quarters to ensure that the interests and the welfare of every citizen is taken into consideration in the People’s Manifesto.
“An early launch of this Manifesto proves PR’s commitment to ensure that the GE-13 campaign focuses on the issues of the people and policies to fight the politics of racism and slander brought about by Umno-BN,” he said in a media conference at the PKR headquarters.
This launch will take place on Monday, 25 February at the Shah Alam Convention Centre (SACC) starting at 9am.
Rafizi further clarified that the manifesto was the result of 18 months of deliberations and discussions, and had been twice submitted to the coalition’s presidential council for review.
Also present at the media conference were Kuala Selangor Member of Parliament, Dr Dzulkefli Ahmad as the PAS representative and Serdang Member of Parliament, Teo Nie Ching as a representative of DAP.
Earlier, PKR launched the ‘People’s Institute’ which will act as an independent policy research think tank – both financial and managerial – which will complement and provide a balanced perspective to the management wing of the party.
PKR Vice-President, Nurul Izzah Anwar explained that this institute will offer independent advise and policy recommendations to the party, in line with Malaysia’s vision of being prosperous under sustainable economic growth and development that is consistent with social, environmental ethnic and religious harmony.
The launch of this think tank will be held on Thursday, 21 February, 3pm at the Empire Hotel in Subang Jaya.
Themed ‘Towards a New Malaysia’, this launch will feature a keynote address from PKR Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and will present his first working paper entitled ‘Mengangkat Pendapatan Boleh Guna’ (Increasing Disposable Income) on the same day.