Former Segambut MP Tan joins PKR

PETALING JAYA: Former Segambut MP and Federal Territories Gerakan chief Datuk Dr Tan Kee Kwong has joined PKR, saying he has lost faith in the Barisan Nasional.

Dr Tan said he faxed his resignation from Gerakan on Friday.

“The decision was not easy but the sentiments were there. I also received the support of my wife and close friends,” he said at a press conference yesterday together with PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Tan: I joined PKR because I believe it is the party of the future.

Dr Tan, 62, said that Gerakan had not contacted him since the letter was faxed and that the party had also not “talked about him” for the past six weeks.

“I joined PKR because I believe it is the party of the future and that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is leading the charge to make Malaysia a better country.

Asked if he was sad about leaving the party he had joined in 1995, Dr Tan said it was not about being sad but about doing what was right in the little time that anyone had in life.

“It is actually a breath of fresh air for me. I know that people might criticise me for being ungrateful but even in my previous party, I was considered an irritant, a cancer in the party that refused to follow the mainstream.”

Dr Tan said in his time in government, as a former deputy land and cooperative development minister, he had tried his best to effect change from within but could not.

He said all the Barisan component parties ought to reassess themselves and be honest about what they stood for in politics, adding that he was not advocating mass defections.

“Umno is far removed from its original struggle and even their own members will tell you that. They have become very proud of showing off material gains and not fighting for the fishermen or farmers.

“We (component parties) are there merely as a rubber-stamp to their struggle. Merely there to legitimise whatever they think is their struggle. Enough is enough,” he said.