PKR leaders mum on invite to Sam Rainsy
ex-vP to discuss ‘way forward’ with Cambodian
PETALING JAYA: The PKR leadership is keeping mum on an invitation extended by one of its senior leaders to exiled Cambodian opposition leaders Sam Rainsy and Tioulong Saumura to meet Malaysian MPs tomorrow.
The invitation letter dated Nov 9 was sent by the party’s Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar to Sam Rainsy, the acting president of the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), which is banned in Cambodia.
“We look forward to discussing the way forward in pursuing the best socio-developmental pathways for both Malaysia and Cambodia,” she stated in the letter.
PKR leaders and Nurul Izzah, who is a former PKR vice-president, did not respond to a request for comment.
The meeting is scheduled for between noon and 1pm at
Parliament House. Saumura is the wife of Rainsy.
Sam Rainsy re-tweeted the letter from Nurul Izzah which was first posted on the Twitter account of Seng Mengbunrong, a young activist from CNRP, on Saturday.
Sam Rainsy, 70, is believed to have flown into Malaysia from Paris on Saturday.
He was originally said to have planned to cross into Cambodia from Thailand that day with other CNRP leaders.
He was however refused permission to board a Thai Airways plane from Paris earlier on Thursday.
After arriving in Kuala Lumpur, Sam Rainsy did not say whether he still planned to head home.
On Friday, the Immigration Department briefly detained another Cambodian opposition leader, Mu Sochua, and two other activists before releasing and allowing them to enter Malaysia.
The detention came ahead of a planned return by CNRP leaders, including Sam Rainsy and Mu Sochua, to Cambodia to lead demonstrations against Prime Minister Hun Sen.
PKR’s Senator Mohd Yusmadi Mohd Yusoff said that when party president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was jailed in 2000, Saumura came to visit him as a sign of solidarity.
Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said the government had yet to decide on the request from its Cambodian counterpart to deport several of its citizens, including Mu Sochua.
He said as they did not come to Malaysia on a Cambodian passport, Malaysia could not accede to the request, and that it had informed Cambodia about this.
Mu Sochua has an American passport while Sam Rainsy and Saumura have French citizenship.