The Malaysian Insight

THE tradition of having the deputy president open the PKR youth and women wings’ meetings at the national congress in December could be tossed out of the window if the youth have their way, said party sources.

The move follows the fallout between party president Anwar Ibrahim and his deputy, Azmin Ali.

A source in the youth wing told The Malaysian Insight they wanted to change the practice this year because they want “to send a message to Azmin”, whom they accuse of making statements detrimental to the party.

“The message is ‘why do we need to give recognition to leaders who continually make statements contrary to the party’s and leadership’s stand?’.

“Do we need leaders like this?”

Azmin has aggravated ties with the leadership by refusing to attend the PKR leadership council meetings or its weekly political bureau meetings.

He has also publicly backed Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to finish his term in office which goes again the transition plan for Anwar to take over some time next year.

The Malaysian Insight learnt that PKR youth now wants to invite former president and Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to open the meetings.

The women’s wing, however, is sticking to tradition and has insisted that Azmin open the meetings.

Sources from both wings told The Malaysian Insight that this is now putting the party in a dilemma.

Another source said the practice of having the deputy president open the meetings comes from Umno, adding that there’s nothing wrong to introduce a change.

“There is also nothing in the party constitution that states the deputy president must address and open the meeting.”

It should, therefore, be up to the respective wings to decide who they want to invite, the source said.

There is a proposal to have the youth and women hold separate opening ceremonies, another source said.

At a congress management bureau meeting earlier this week, a proposal was mooted to separate the openings so the respective wings can invite who they want.

“The problem is that we cannot have the opening of the meetings on separate days as this would incur extra costs.

“So the option is for one wing to have their opening in the morning and the other wing, later in the day,” the source said. – November 1, 2019.