PKR press release another blunder, says blogger

(NST) – PKR has made another wrong move in the Selangor menteri besar fiasco, claims blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin.

In his Malaysia Today blog, he described the press release issued by PKR secretary-general Datuk Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, seeking an audience with Sultan of Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah to show that party president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail had the majority support for the menteri besar’s post, as a “bad move”.

Raja Petra said the party should have sent an official letter to the palace instead of issuing a press release that was circulated among the public if it wanted to seek an audience with the sultan.

“The sultan would not regard a press release as an official letter to the palace and would just ignore the request,” he said, adding that the press release indicated that the meeting was to disagree with the sultan over the status of the support for Dr Wan Azizah.

“Since the sultan already knows what the meeting is about and what PKR’s stand is, he need not bother meeting them just to, again, hear what the party is going to say,” he said, adding that it could be assumed that the meeting would not be held before Tuesday, when the new menteri besar is expected to be sworn in. He said PKR’s claim that Pakatan had reached a consensus on selecting Dr Wan Azizah as menteri besar was a lie.

“Thirty out of 56 Adun (assemblymen) is not a consensus. A consensus would have to be at least 44 (or 43, minus Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim). So, the consensus is a lie.”

Raja Petra said Pakatan’s argument would not be valid even if it claimed that the consensus was based on the three alliance parties and not the 43 assemblymen.

“This, too, is a lie because while PKR and DAP agree on just one name, Pas, however, had submitted three names.”