FORMER Parti Keadilaan Rakyat (PKR) vice president Tian Chua has been officially sacked from the party, according to PKR disciplinary board chairman Tan Yee Kew, for defying the leadership and running as an independent candidate for the Batu parliamentary seat in the 15th General Election (GE15).
Tan told Malaysiakini that the decision was made during the party’s Central Leadership Council (MPC) meeting last night (Jan 7) .
He said yesterday the MPP had a meeting and a decision was made to officially fire Chua, along with a total of five PKR members, Puah Chee Haur from Parit Buntar PKR branch, Ahmad Tarmizi Mohd Ghazali from Gopeng branch, and M Mohganan from Taiping branch. Nur Khairunisa Abdullah from Sadong Jaya branch was also fired for contesting in Sadong Jaya during the 2021 Sarawak election.
Puah and Ahmad Tarmizi each contested under the Warisan ticket in Keranji and Chenderiang, while Mohganan contested in Taping as an independent candidate.
“All were fired for contesting as independent candidates or on another party’s ticket. Those who will be fired due to other disciplinary actions will be announced later,” said Tan.
Netizens are sad with the brutal end of Chua’s career with the PKR, a party that some say he helped during his long struggle for reforms in Malaysia.
For @FrdausDigiTamer he commented in Malay saying:
Kesian pulak dekat Tian Chua ni. Dulu antara watak rebel semasa ‘Reformasi 98’.
Tak sangka pengakhirannya begini. https://t.co/1W2gbGxdpc— |Phirdaus| (@FrdausDigiTamer) January 8, 2023
Translated from Malay, it meant that the Twitter user is saying, “It’s a pity for Tian Chua. Used to be one of the rebel characters during ‘Reformasi 98’. I didn’t think it would end like this.”
Another user @izzataziz said:
Shame, aku rasa geng geng PKR yang sekarang tak pernah pun berdarah, kena angkut polis sebab parti macam Tian Chua. https://t.co/cviEfHzpQr
— izzat (@izzataziz) January 8, 2023
He said it is a shame because he felt the current PKR members have never spilled “blood” or been dragged into a police cell for the party’s cause, like Chua.
Some users commented that Chua’s career ended faster than the twin towers that fell in the USA on 911 or that it was good riddance for what they perceived as his demarcation from the party’s policies.
PKR boots out Tian Chua officially https://t.co/vDdIJC2abn
— malaysiakini.com (@malaysiakini) January 8, 2023
Chua held the Batu seat for two terms between 2008 and 2018 but was defeated in the 2022 polls, losing his deposit as an independent candidate in the PKR stronghold.
He was defeated by Prabakaran Parameswaran who was fielded as an independent candidate in 2018 after Chua was disqualified to participate in the GE. Prabakaran later joined the PKR and was fielded in 2022 much to the unhappiness of Chua who had supported the latter in 2018. — Jan 8, 2023
