The Malaysian Insight

IN A show of support for party president Anwar Ibrahim after his public spat with deputy president Mohamed Azman Ali, PKR leaders threw their backing behind Anwar and his leadership, the culmination of a three-day retreat in Port Dickson.

The 120 party faithful – comprising leaders of its central leadership council (MPP), MPs, assemblymen, senators and state leaders – signed a resolution endorsing Anwar’s leadership of the party.

The retreat was to have been attended by 20 more leaders but some – like deputy president Azmin Ali, vice president Zuraidah Kamaruddin, PKR Wanita chief Haniza Talha and Sarawak chief Baru Bian – did not attend.

“We are committed to strengthening PKR as a multiracial party based on the principles of the constitution and ensuring the Pakatan Harapan manifesto is applied.

“We hereby give full support to party president Anwar to lead the party and be the cornerstone of Pakatan Harapan, in line with all the provisions in the party constitution,” read out by party secretary general Saifuddin Nasution.

Anwar said those not present would sign the resolution later.

“Give them some time to read through the resolution first to see if they agree or not.

“I don’t think they will dispute…the support for the majority is there.”

The party appears to be heading for a split after Anwar and Azmin had been hitting out at each other following the emergence of a sex video that implicated the latter.

Former Santubong PKR Youth chief Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz had admitted to being one of the men in the videos, naming Azmin as the other.

Haziq has since been sacked from the party.

Azmin has denied it is him in the clips and police have affirmed his innocence.

Police have made 11 arrests, including Anwar’s political secretary Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak, in connection with the case.

Police have verified the authenticity of the sex videos but said facial recognition tools had failed to establish to identities of the two men in the videos that emerged last month.

Yesterday Anwar made conciliatory remarks about the investigation after having said earlier that Azmin should resign from his posts if it was him in the video. – July 21, 2019.