Xavier: Don’t make wild accusations
PETALING JAYA: PKR vice-president Dr Xavier Jayakumar has ticked off party member and Kapar MP Abdullah Sani Abdul Hamid for accusing Tun Dr Ma hath ir Mo ham ad of being among the individuals behind a conspiracy to prevent Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim from becoming prime minister.
He said in a series of tweets that while PKR celebrates differences in opinion and champions freedom of expression among its members, they must refrain from criticising members of fellow Pakatan Harapan component parties, especially their leaders.
“Irrespective of PKR camps or allegiance, healthy politics should be practised by every member in the party instead of making accusations for the sake of ‘cheap brownie points’ and political mileage at the expense of component party leaders or members,” he said.
Dr Xavier, who is Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister, said attacking coalition partners would not only provide an opportunity for the opposition to claim that the relationship within Pakatan was fractured, it would also open the door for other Pakatan parties to criticise PKR in the open.
“We must always remember that such instability does not augur well for the government that we are administrating and the people who have placed their trust in us,” he said.
He said given that PKR held the largest contingent of MPs in Pakatan, he did not see how the agreement that Anwar would succeed Dr Mahathir could be breached by anyone in Pakatan.
Any concern or allegation over the succession should have been dealt within the Pakatan presidential council or internally within PKR, he added.
Dr Xavier urged candidates in the PKR polls to campaign in a manner that would not affect other component parties.
Abdullah Sani had claimed that several parties who had wronged Anwar previously were again conspiring to prevent him from becoming prime minister.
“I will openly say that Tun Daim Zainuddin has a role in this,” he said in Seremban on Sunday when campaigning for Rafizi Ramli, who is contesting against Datuk Seri Azmin Ali for the deputy president post in the PKR polls.
Daim is the head of the Council of Eminent Persons and has long been regarded as a trusted adviser of Dr Mahathir.
Abdullah Sani further claimed that Anwar would face problems taking over the premiership from Dr Mahathir if Rafizi was unsuccessful in unseating Azmin, the Economic Affairs Minister.
In the run-up to the May 9 general election, Pakatan leaders had agreed that Dr Mahathir would be made Prime Minister if the coalition won the general election.
They also agreed that Anwar, who recently won the PKR presidency unopposed, would take over the post from Dr Mahathir though no time frame was fixed for it.
Dr Mahathir told the press that he had no business with the internal affairs of other parties, adding he had never even talked to anyone about stopping Anwar from becoming the next premier.