PKR: No rift with PSM
PKR leaders R Sivarasa and Saifuddin Nasution, however, imply that they are not agreeable to Parti Sosialis Malaysia using its own logo to contest in the general election.
G Vinod, FMT
PKR today denied any rift with Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) in regard to which party would be contesting for the Kota Damansara state seat.
However, the party implied that it was not comfortable with PSM contesting using its own logo.
“We are offering the Kota Damansara state seat and the Sungai Siput parliamentary seat to PSM provided they contest under any of the Pakatan Rakyat party logos,” said PKR supreme council member R Sivarasa at a press conference held at the party headquarters.
Also present was PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution.
Recently, it was reported that Selangor PKR chief Azmin Ali had given the green light to lawyer Razlan Jalaludin to start campaigning for the Kota Damansara state seat.
The seat is currently held by PSM chairman Nasir Hashim.
“We’re friends fighting together against a common enemy. I don’t know why PKR is fussy about us.
“To say that PKR has an issue with our socialist ideology doesn’t make any sense… we never had any problems for the past five years,” Nasir was reported saying.
Elaborating on the matter, Saifuddin said the Pakatan presidential council had already advised PSM to contest using any of the opposition pact’s party logo via a letter some time ago.
“But we didn’t receive any response from them. Since they are not part of the Pakatan pact, we advised them to use our logo,” he said.
Overlapping demands
On why PSM was not admitted into Pakatan despite the former’s application several months back, Saifuddin said, “I cannot answer that now. The issue now is about the logo.”
