Azmin – Rafizi feud shows no sign of abating
(NST) – The feud between PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali and Rafizi Ramli shows no sign of ending anytime soon.
Azmin today lashed out at Rafizi, who is PKR vice-president, saying that Rafizi should know better than to air the party’s dirty linen in public.
Azmin who is also Selangor Menteri Besar, said Rafizi should have voiced his concerns with the party’s leadership by having a discussion instead of revealing party matters to the media.
He was responding to Rafizi’s blog post yesterday where the latter had blamed Azmin’s insistence on seeking Pas’ cooperation for the 14th General Election (GE14) for causing division in PKR.
“He’s the vice-president of party so certainly he should come to party meetings and discuss it. It applies to all party leadership.
“Why must we talk to the media?
“There are many ways and mechanisms that we can (use to) discuss any of our party’s issues and we should work based on consensus,” he said after witnessing the signing of three post-closure maintenance works agreements of three landfills at Air Hitam Landfill Park here.
Rafizi, in his post, said PKR should let its grassroot members decide on the matter, adding that the party’s leadership appeared incapable of resolving the impasse, which has so far led a member of its political bureau to resign in protest of Azmin’s continued courtship of Pas.
Among the questions Rafizi asked were whether retaining Selangor and PKR’s seats were worth the party sacrificing its principles, whether the political reality justified such a compromise, and whether PKR has the moral standing to lead the contest against the ruling Barisan Nasional.
However Azmin pointed out that since PKR’s leadership were chosen by the grassroot, it’s only fair for its members to give the mandate to the leaders that they elected.
“To me, that’s his (Rafizi) personal comment which was not discussed by the party. But leadership means we must have the ability to manage differing views with wisdom and there is no need to expose this matter to the media because the leadership we have now was chosen by the grassroots.
“The leadership was elected by party members, so we must give mandate to the leadership.
“Our focus now is to see how we can create an effective cooperation with everyone for GE14,” he added.
Asked why PKR was still offering a hand in friendship to Pas despite the Islamic party consistently slamming the door on PKR, Azmin downplayed the question and said “it’s okay, we are still discussing it.”
Pas, in May this year, officially ended its 18-year cooperation with PKR, with the Syura Council deciding that the move was necessary in order to defend the party’s Islamic agenda.
The Syura Council had accused PKR of breaking many terms of its conditional cooperation with Pas, including failing to support it in its Islamic agenda, and working against it in two by-elections last year.
