Sabah PKR’s nominated assemblyman quits party
Jaffari Waliam says he and 3,000 members are leaving the party because they have lost faith in PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.
KOTA KINABALU: PKR’s nominated assemblyman Jaffari Waliam today announced that he was quitting the party as he had lost faith in PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.
In a press conference in Sandakan, Jaffari, who is also Libaran PKR division chief, said 23 out of the 35 branches under his division, involving 3,144 members, had decided to follow suit.
He said this had effectively shut down the Libaran division as those leaving the party made up more than two-thirds the total number of members in the division.
“We have lost faith in the party president (Anwar), who has been proven to have failed in running the party.
“The president only prioritises certain groups while sidelining others, especially the original fighters who had sacrificed (for the party) for the past 20 years,” he told reporters.
Jaffari added that their decision to quit the party was also made after taking into consideration the Central Committee’s move to sack deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali and vice-president Zuraida Kamaruddin.
At the same time, he said they were also supporting Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister as well as the leadership of Warisan president Shafie Apdal as the Sabah chief minister.
He stressed that PKR should be grateful to Mahathir for it was under his successful leadership that Pakatan Harapan had managed to win the last general election.
Instead, he said there were those in PKR who were busy pressuring Mahathir to step down and give way to Anwar to become PM.
“Tun Dr Mahathir was given the mandate as the PM and should continue to lead, particularly in stabilising the country’s economy until the end of his term,” Jaffari said.
Jaffari was appointed as one of the six nominated assemblymen in September 2018. The other nominated assemblymen are from Warisan (two), Upko and DAP.
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He did not contest in GE14 but assisted the Warisan candidate in the Gum-Gum state seat. He was also Sabah PKR election director in GE13.