Opposition coalition may lose "Harapan" if new party has its way

KUALA LUMPUR: A group of former PKR leaders and members have banded together to form a new party that could lead to Pakatan Harapan removing the word "Harapan" from its name.

Parti Harapan Malaysia's (PHM) pro-tem vice-president Johari Musa said a letter of application to form the party was submitted to the Registrar of Societies (RoS) in December 2015 following elaborate discussions with current and former PKR leaders.

He said if they received approval from RoS to form PHM, opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan would have to remove the word "Harapan" from its name.

"We have already paid the fee to RoS, which means Pakatan Harapan can no longer use the word Harapan in their name.

"They can use other names like Pakatan Bersama. It wouldn't matter. As long as they don't use 'Harapan' again," he said.

The applicants paid RoS a fee of RM30 in December 2016 to register their party under the name of "Parti Harapan Malaysia".

Johari said once PHM is registered with RoS, they would join PAS' third bloc known as Gagasan Sejahtera, along with Parti Ikatan Bangsa Malaysia (Ikatan), Barisan Jemaah Islamiah Se-Malaysia (Berjasa) and Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM).

He said PKR members and leaders who joined the party in 1999 are incensed by the current state of the party and the attitudes of its leaders.

"When members offer suggestions or express their disappointment during branch meetings, they are called traitors," he said, claiming that those who try to "clean" the party from within would be expelled, shamed or slandered.

"Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim was the latest victim to be shamed," he said.

Johari said he is confident that 35% of PKR members would defect to PHM once it was approved by the RoS.

Johari was the former Lembah Pantai deputy PKR chief and former PKR Grassroots Club chairman.

He claimed that he left the party in 2015 after being issued a show-cause letter by PKR for publicly suggesting that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad should join the Opposition coalition and replace Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim after he was sentenced to prison.