GEORGE TOWN: PKR will not “implode” over claims by opposition leaders of party election shenanigans last year, its deputy president, Rafizi Ramli, said.
Opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin recently claimed that PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail had attempted to invalidate Rafizi’s win in the party polls last year.
Rafizi said the matter was a non-issue, and the objection to the results of the polls was made by people affiliated with former Perak PKR chief Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak.
“I am surprised that the opposition leader thinks this can destabilise PKR. (It’s a) good attempt to distract but it will not have any effect on the coming (state) elections,” Rafizi told reporters on the sidelines of an economy ministry event here today.
“The difference is, unlike other parties, we can disagree with each other. I don’t necessarily agree with Saifuddin, and I have even disagreed with Prime Minister and PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, but that does not change anything. That is PKR’s strength.
“It so happens that in Bersatu, (dissent) does not exist and, therefore, they think if this had happened in PKR, assuming it was them, it would have (led to the collapse of) the party.”
Rafizi said Saifuddin was instrumental in helping him return to Malaysia from the UK in 2003 when he was facing a threat of arrest. He said Saifuddin had pulled some strings for him to cross into Malaysia from Singapore at that time.
Hamzah had claimed that Saifuddin had approached him less than a week after Rafizi defeated him by a sizable majority in the party’s deputy presidency race.
He claimed that Saifuddin approached him with a letter, which he still possessed, seeking to nullify the PKR election results.
Saifuddin denied the claim, saying he only met Hamzah to talk and clarify issues about the PKR polls.
Separately, Rafizi said Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s “failed state” commentary on the Anwar administration was expected because he was now friendly with Perikatan Nasional.
“When he is present on a PAS-Bersatu stage, it is a coming together of an emotional gang. The rakyat can tell,” he said.
