Anwar contesting where? ‘Ask the kongsi gelap’, says Zuraida
PKR women’s wing head says any decision as to which parliamentary seat Anwar Ibrahim should contest should be discussed at the top party level.
BUTTERWORTH: PKR women’s wing chief Zuraida Kamaruddin today said she too was not privy to discussions as to which of the 51 PKR MPs will give up their seat for Anwar Ibrahim to contest, following claims by another leader that he had been left in the dark.
PKR vice-president Tian Chua had questioned the motive behind meetings held by a select group of party leaders over which seat Anwar should contest, asking if the party was a “secret society or a democratic party”.
Anwar is planning to announce his candidacy tomorrow.
At a press conference at Batu Kawan here today, Zuraida tacitly agreed with Tian Chua’s statement but gave a diplomatic answer by saying a proper meeting of the top central leadership of PKR ought to be held to discuss such matters.
“At least that way we can lay all things on the table, list a number of seats and decide which seat would have no risk or lesser risk for Anwar.
“As far as I know, there is no official meeting among us central leaders on this. There was no political bureau meeting held to date.
“Perhaps that is why Tian Chua feels that a discussion on the side may seem to look like a secret society meeting,” she said.
Asked if she could give a clue as to where Anwar might be contesting, the Ampang MP replied in jest: “Only the kongsi gelap knows, I don’t know.” She said she was not part of the “secret society” and hence she did not know what was going on.
Recently, Tian Chua delivered a broadside against PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli for saying the decision as to where Anwar would contest had been discussed among a“few of us”, alluding to a select few people from the party.
Tian Chua had earlier panned Rafizi for saying a PKR MP would give way to Anwar to contest a federal seat, saying it was unilateral in nature. He said Rafizi was against unilateral decisions before, especially when the prime minister made his cabinet appointments.
Yesterday, Rafizi said Tian Chua’s comments might have arisen as he was left out of discussions over the matter.
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“Tian Chua may have felt awkward because he was not involved in the process. Usually, only a few of us are involved,” he was reported as saying.