Tian Chua’s aide booed and heckled by Khalid’s supporters
Fernando Fong, The Rakyat Post
Things appear to be really bad for PKR when a secretary to Batu MP and PKR vice-president Tian Chua was booed and heckled by the party’s own supporters at a forum entitled “Selangor crisis: Did Khalid Ibrahim betray Pakatan?” held at Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall last night.
Rozan Azen Mat Rasip irked the majority of the audience who were Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim’s supporters with his statement that Khalid had failed with regard to the party leadership council’s decision to include the Selangor Water Restructuring Committee’s decisions at the state level.
Some of the supporters attending the forum by Lensa Anak Muda Malaysia booed and interrupted Rozan when he was the first to give his questions to the panelists.
He commented that Khalid had gone against the decisions made by the party’s leadership council which met on July 21 which picked party president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the new Selangor Menteri Besar.
As he was attempting to argue that Khalid had gone against the Pakatan Rakyat presidential council when he agreed to postpone the process and discussion on the Langat 2 project, a PKR member from Ampang, 55-year-old Sahar Samian, stood up and loudly scolded him while trying to get near, prompting other forum participants and the moderator to call for restraint.
“Stop asking nonsense and don’t be rude,” forum participants shouted at Rozan, while others yelled and called him a liar and that they had been unfairly sacked from PKR, before tempers finally cooled down towards the end of the forum attended by about 200 people.
Rozan conceded he was aggressive in his words but said he had no intention to provoke, but merely to let people ponder and think on the “facts” surrounding the sacking of Khalid as Selangor Menteri Besar on Saturday.
“I fear what happened during the forum is an indication that the party will be divided over the sacking, not unlike the UMNO split when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad sacked Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in 1998.
“But Khalid must be sacked now rather than later to prevent further divisions among the party ranks,” he told The Rakyat Post.
Moderator Syukri Razab said the Lensa Anak Muda Malaysia had initially wanted to invite panelists from both sides of the divide.
“We feared things might turned ugly between supporters from both sides.
“Despite what happened today, we will still do it in the near future as we are confident that people will act with restraint,” he said.
The panelists at the forum included Khalid’s special officer and Institut Rakyat executive director Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajudin, the Menteri Besar’s communication executive Shazni Munir, writer and columnist Nathaniel Tan and Pakatan Anak Selangor Menyokong Menteri Besar (PASMEB) president Mazli Saring.
