SHAH ALAM: The gloves, its appears, are off as the war of words between PKR’s top two leaders Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali intensified.
This was after the PKR President made a scathing remark against his deputy at the Reformist Convention 2019 here this morning.
Though the PKR President made no mention of Azmin’s name during in his speech, for some people at the Ideal Convention Centre, it was evident that the attack was directed at the PKR Deputy President.
This was despite on previous occasions Anwar had constantly denied allegations of infighting in the Pakatan Harapan component party, following a fall out between the two party leaders.
Anwar said leaders should not forget their roots while slamming opposition parties, saying they had forgotten about their duties to the people, hence their defeat in last year’s general election.
“But sometimes some people forget and even in PKR, there are those who forgot (their roots).
“They no longer dare to say the word ‘reformasi’ or meet with the reformists because they forgot where they came from.
“They forgot that this struggle is not for one or two persons. It is not to secure the position of one or two ministers or giving projects to those who support (you) and not given any to those who defy (you).
“This is the old Umno’s bad attitude and this must be changed,” he said, to which some members of the audience shouted, “throw Azmin out”.
The Port Dickson Member of Parliament, however, did not elaborate on his claim on “giving projects”.
Anwar also said he had talked on the matter with Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad two days ago.
“I said this was an abuse of power, we must stop this habit. It wasn’t just a meeting with people from our party, but there was a discussion with our (political) enemies.
“We must have principles in our struggle. There is no need for me to elaborate because everything is now out in the open,” he said.
Anwar was referring to the meeting between Azmin and several Barisan Nasional MPs as well as some PKR lawmakers at his official residence in Precinct 10, Putrajaya, on Monday night.
While Azmin described it as a normal meeting between MPs, other participants had in subsequent days provided different accounts of what transpired at the informal meeting.
Some claimed it had to do with projects for their respective constituencies while others claimed it was over the economy and the government's shared prosperity vision.
Asked on the Nov 18 meeting at a press conference yesterday, Dr Mahathir said he had heard from Azmin that some of the Umno MPs in attendance were contemplating defection.
The Pakatan Harapan also claimed some of those Umno MPs also expressed their support for him. This claim however prompted a denial from seven Umno MPs.
Anwar and Azmin have had a strained relationship, splitting PKR into two camps after it was widely reported that Dr Mahathir favoured Azmin as his successor. Dr Mahathir had denied the claim on several occasions.
The emergence of a sex video implicating Azmin, which the Economic Affairs Minister denied, had also caused further strain to his relationship with Anwar after the Gombak MP insinuated that Anwar’s supporters were behind the viral video.