By Danial Dzulkifly
SHAH ALAM, April 21 — Parti Keadilan Rakyat must uphold its commitment to reform by implementing major changes that benefit the people now that it is in power, said party secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
Addressing the party’s 25th-anniversary celebration today, he stressed that Keadilan should not be swayed by efforts to consolidate power but instead remain focused on bringing about structural changes that benefit the people.
“I would like to say here that the success of reforms, whether in the eyes of the people and party members, will be measured by the policies and programmes which we implemented for the good of the people.
“The benchmark should not be how many Cabinet members that the party has, how many states that we control, how many parliamentarians and state executive councillors that we have,’’ he said to some 3,500 party delegates gathered at the Ideal Convention Centre Shah Alam.
However, Saifuddin acknowledges that meaningful changes will be ‘painful’ but necessary in the short term as Malaysia faces a challenging fiscal position, with mounting debt and commitment yet having a limited revenue stream.
“At the micro level, the country must be managed with the utmost care. We may have to conduct some changes, which will be painful in the short term but is the right decision to make, he said.
Saifudin briefly touched on the move by the government to implement targeted subsidies and other austerity measures, including establishing the Central Database Hub (Padu) to help the government make data-driven decisions.
Earlier in his speech, he also recalled the party’s 25-year history, facing numerous defeats and its eventual success in helming the Federal government.
This includes Pakatan Harapan’s first tenure in Putrajaya under the leadership of then-premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (from 2018 to 2020).
Saifudin said the leaders then forgot the spirit of Reformasi and instead focused on accumulating wealth, leading to the collapse of the Harapan administration in 2020 with the departure of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia and several Keadilan defectors.
