PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim mixed skillful staccato attack with lessons in the economics of oil pricing and prudent financial management when welcoming former MCA Wanita deputy leader Dr Tan Yee Kew and 1,700 others to the PKR fold in Klang today.

dr tan yew kee former mca klang wanita joins pkr anwar ibrahim event 030808 05 Speaking to a staunchly middle-class audience that packed the convention hall of the Klang Executive Club in Jalan Bukit Raja, the PKR chief wove a theory of oil price fixing gleaned from petroleum pricing expert Daniel Yergin into his standard set of rhetorical darts aimed at Barisan Nasional.

"Daniel Yergin, a renowned expert in the economics of petroleum price fixing, said that US$135 per barrel is the break point in the international market," explained Anwar to an overflow crowd that at that point could be forgiven for thinking that the PKR supremo was referring to a game of tennis.

But Anwar, deftly switching gears from orator to teacher, summarised Yergin's theory of when oil prices would flatten and fall to convey the point that if the price on the international market fell to US$135 a barrel, a Pakatan Rakyat government would lower the local price per litre by 50 sen and if it fell to US$125, it would reduce the price by 70 sen.

dr tan yew kee former mca klang wanita joins pkr anwar ibrahim event 030808 06 The punch lines in the Yergin-based explanation were in the reduced prices a Pakatan government would impose.

The audience cheered those lines with gusto, showing appreciation for the suggestion that the leader they had come to hear was not merely a tub-thumper with a set of applause lines but a serious dabbler in the dismal science of economics.

Anwar said a Pakatan government would save some RM3 billion by reducing power producer Tenaga Nasional's reserve capacity and from stamping out corrupt practices, all of which he said would enable the coalition, if given the chance to helm the government, to effect economies that would be passed on to the people in reduced prices.

‘We rule not for cronies’

"We will rule for the people, not for cronies, families and in-laws," he thundered.

"I will set the example by telling Azizah that she is not to be involved in business and my children that they will have to be professionals on their own. Unless I set the example, it will be very difficult to get a Pakatan government adhering down the line to these stringent requirements."

dr tan yew kee former mca klang wanita joins pkr anwar ibrahim event 030808 07 Anwar described Tan’s switch to PKR as being in line with the principles of her political struggle.

"She has the education, the performance and the integrity to go up the ladder but she has recognised that she can no longer do so within a corrupt system."

"Her decision to join PKR is a good sign of things to come. It has given us spirit and heart for the start of the final push which will begin tonight in Permatang Pauh."

Anwar was to kick off his campaign to be elected to the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat vacated last Friday by his wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail - the three-term incumbent who resigned the seat to make way for her husband.