KUALA LUMPUR: While Muafakat Nasional’s organisational structure resembles that of a political party – with state, parliament and state assembly liaisons – it will remain a non-governmental organisation (NGO), says its president Tan Sri Annuar Musa, adding that the country already has too many political parties.
“We shall remain an NGO, we have a lot to do. We believe we can contribute in our way without having to transform ourselves into a political party.
“In fact, one of our missions is to encourage our brothers and sisters who are running political parties to move in the right direction. We have more than enough political parties,” he told the press here yesterday after the Muafakat supreme council meeting.
Annuar added Muafakat has chosen to follow the organisational structure set by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) with state, parliament, and state assembly liaisons.
He claimed this was because it had received overwhelming response, with some 25,000 members already joining from across the 222 parliamentary constituencies in Malaysia.
“That is what the ROS has approved, so we just stick to it. This is just the organisational structure, but the objective and activities are more important.
“It is basically a question of choice – you can either choose by election boundaries or normal administrative boundaries, which are districts and territories.
“If you take Kota Baru, you have four parliamentary constituencies and several state seats, but many territories. So, in our constitution, this is the structure we have agreed on,” he said, adding that Muafakat will only have state liaisons and not have elections like other political parties.
The aim is to cut across all political parties and reach out to communities, he said before announcing that Muafakat will have four deputy presidents to assist the president.
They are Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin, Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof, Datuk Seri Dr Edmund Santhara Kumar and Prof Dr Mohd Ridhuan Tee Abdullah.
Meanwhile, Annuar said the supreme council meeting agreed to establish six main clusters to strengthen its organisational structure.
“The cluster are of Economics; Social and Welfare; Education and Citizenship; Politics and Leadership; Youth and Students; and Social Media and Cultural Arts; which will be headed by key members of Muafakat.
“We are also planning to hold a convention between March and the middle of the year, focusing on the Muafakat’s efforts in positive nation building.
“Muafakat will be giving out RM1,000 scholarships to underprivileged university students from all ethnic backgrounds,” he said, adding Muafakat has agreed to form a “National Administration School”.