SHAH ALAM: The faction siding with PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Azmin Ali has emerged as the dominant force in both the party’s women and youth wings’ central leadership councils for the 2018 - 2021 term.
Azmin’s camp has captured the top two posts for the Wanita wing, with Lembah Jaya assembyman Hanizah Mohd Talha emerging as the wing’s chief and Sementa assemblyman Dr Daroyah Alwi as her deputy.
Both women are reportedly aligned to ‘Team Azmin’.
Hanizah had defeated Kuantan member of parliament Fuziah Salleh, who is aligned to Rafizi Ramli, in the party election, while Daroyah overcame a challenge by Batu Tiga assemblyman Rodziah Ismail.
Two out of three Wanita vice-chief posts are also held by Azmin’s allies in the form of Faizah Ariffin and Sangetha Jayakumar, with Wasanthee Sinnasamy being the sole representative of Rafizi.
Sangetha’s father Xavier Jayakumar, who is a PKR vice-president hopeful, served as a Selangor state exco member under Azmin when the latter was Selangor menteri besar, and is also a fellow Cabinet minister.
Azmin is now facing a straight fight with Rafizi in what is deemed a neck-and-neck fight for the deputy presidency. Rafizi is said to have the blessings of incoming party president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his family while Azmin, who was mentored by Anwar has the party’s ‘reformasi’ group behind him.
The presence of Azmin is also evident in the Wanita central leadership committee, with his allies taking up 15 of the 20 spots.
However, Hanizah, speaking at a press conference after being announced as the new Wanita chief, said the wing is only focused on continuing its agenda to uphold justice for women.
She denied the existence of ‘camps’ within the wing, insisting that the new lineup is focused only on the reform agenda.
“I wish to stress that there are no more camps or specific groups in this new Wanita lineup,” she said.
Over in the Youth wing, Azmin’s allies have also taken up the lion’s share of the slots.
With the exception of new Youth chief, Johor Bahru member of parliament Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir, the majority are viewed as belonging to Azmin’s camp, including two out of Akmal’s three new vice-chiefs.
The new PKR Youth vice-chiefs are Jestin Raj Savarimuthu, Mohd Nazree Mohd Yunus and S Thiban.
The new Youth deputy chief, Hilman Idham, who is Gombak Setia assemblyman, is Azmin’s ally, having served as Azmin’s special assistant prior to contesting in the 14th general election.
Sources also indicated that 18 of the 25 faces in the Youth wing’s central leadership council for 2018 - 2021 are from ‘Team Azmin’.
Meanwhile, the situation became tense at the Youth Congress here on Friday when Akmal was announced as the wing’s new chief.
The announcement was followed by jeers from a faction of the crowd, who instead shouted out the name of former Youth deputy chief, Dr Afif Bahardin, who had lost out to Akmal in the contest for the Youth chief post.
Afif had previously been linked to Azmin’s camp.
Apart from yelling out Afif’s name, several delegates also called for a recount to be done.
The situation only became calm when the dissenting delegates exited the hall.