Save your comments for retreat, Saifuddin tells Zuraida
PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail says it is better for vice-president Zuraida Kamaruddin to express her concerns at the Port Dickson meeting instead of in the open.
PUTRAJAYA: PKR vice-president Zuraida Kamaruddin has been advised to express her concerns over developments in the party at a retreat instead of making public statements that may make matters worse.
PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said speaking up at the retreat was better than “making statements every day, that does not relieve the situation”.
“Tonight, we will have a party retreat at Port Dickson. Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad will also be there to speak at 9pm.
“Zuraida is a right-hand person at the party, and a participant in the retreat. It would have been more appropriate that whatever views she has about problems with the party, the three-day retreat is the best platform,” Saifuddin told reporters after launching the Food Bank Malaysia @ Pasar Tani project at Putrajaya today.
The project aims to use unsold excess food by pasar tani traders for distribution to the B40 group.
Saifuddin said he would welcome Zuraida’s views about “cracks” within the party and ways to solve them, if any, at the three-day retreat.
Yesterday, Zuraida admitted to problems in the party, although she preferred to use the term “schools of thought” to describe opposing stands in the gay sex video controversy.
She said that while the cracks were real, outside factors were making them worse.
“Perception and the media are blowing it up, but I think, yes, it (the split) is happening,” she told reporters.
Zuraida was among 27 PKR Central Leadership Council members and MPs who issued a statement criticising party president Anwar Ibrahim for suggesting that deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali take leave if the videos proved authentic.
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Former Santubong PKR Youth chief Haziq Aziz had admitted that he was one of two men shown in the videos. He named Azmin as the other man, a claim rejected by the economic affairs minister, who said it was a conspiracy to end his political career.