AYER KEROH: Addressing a "battered" and "hurt" PKR at its National Congress, an emotional Datuk Dr Fuziah Salleh declared that the party's current struggles do not mark its weakest moment.
“Today, we come to this congress in a state of sorrow," the PKR secretary-general said during her opening address on Saturday (Aug 15). "We are not here simply to follow our emotions. We are here after going through a challenging year that has left a significant impact on our struggle.”
Fuziah highlighted recent political setbacks, noting that several elections had tested the party's resilience.
“We lost several states that had long served as strongholds, including states that we had once governed," she said. "We also went through changes in our political relationships, not all of which were easy to navigate.”
She lamented that former allies had chosen different directions, using a traditional Malay idiom to describe the breakdown in trust: “As the saying goes, sleeping on the same pillow, but dreaming different dreams.”
Despite the setbacks, Fuziah urged delegates to channel their frustration into momentum for recovery.
“We cannot pretend that nothing has happened," she added. "We must acknowledge that we have been disappointed, saddened, and hurt. But we cannot allow those wounds to determine our future. A wound is not the end, and failure is not the end of the struggle.”
To put the current crisis into perspective, Fuziah reminded delegates of the party's lowest point in 2004, when PKR was left with just a single parliamentary seat won by a narrow margin.
“We have been through much more difficult times. Look back to 2004. At that time, Keadilan was still a young party, born out of the Reformasi wave and having only recently gone through the merger process,” she said.
At the same time, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was still in prison. After the 2004 general election, Keadilan had only one parliamentary seat left, Permatang Pauh. This was compared with 1999, when Keadilan had five parliamentary seats and five state seats,” she added.
We may have fallen before, but we have never chosen to surrender. And that history should be our source of confidence today: as long as we have the courage to rebuild and remain loyal to the struggle for Keadilan, Keadilan will always have a path to success,” she added.
She said PKR’s fight is not over as it has to continue soldiering on in governing the country.
