‘Nothing odd about contest for post’

The fight for No.2 position won’t split PKR but would make it better, says Rafizi

KUALA TERENGGANU: Although the fight for the PKR deputy president seems to be getting more intense, Rafizi Ramli has assured that it will not lead to a split in the party.

In allaying concerns among the Pakatan Harapan coalition, the deputy president hopeful said outsiders were worried over the verbal exchanges between him and Datuk Seri Azmin Ali.

“They may find the openness among us odd, leading allies such as Parti Amanah Negara and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia to fear that the tension could lead to a split.”

At his ceramah to mark the 20th anniversary of the Reformasi movement on Saturday night, he assured the audience that a split would not happen.

Rafizi said it was better to air issues and dissatisfactions openly rather than bottling it up or sweeping it under the carpet.

He said PKR had held on to the same principle of openness in the past 20 years and had only grown stronger because of it.

“We are different from Umno or PAS, whose members are worried about speaking out.

“However, that same fear led to splits in both parties with Amanah coming out of PAS and PPBM, a splinter from Umno.

“As for PKR, we compete but no matter who wins, we will go back to making the party stronger,” said Rafizi.

Separately, Rafizi defended his claims that the Economic Affairs Minister had gone to Turkey to dis- suade Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim from running for the top post.

He said Azmin’s aide was free to defend his boss but he would leave it to party members to assess.

“This is the party’s election and the public may not have much insider knowledge but for members who have been following the internal goings-on, this will add to their wealth of information,” he said.

On Friday, Rafizi claimed that Azmin had met Anwar in Turkey to request for the party’s presidentelect to step aside and allow him to contest for the top post.

We are different from Umno or PAS, whose members are worried about speaking out. However, that same fear led to splits in both parties ... Rafizi Ramli