'Rebellion' against Baru in Sarawak PKR

Selangau PKR chief Joshua Jabeng has claimed that the majority of Sarawak PKR divisions wanted to replace state party leader Baru Bian.

This comes hours after Baru's (photo, above) office announced that he would be holding a press conference in Kuala Lumpur in his party capacity tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon.

In a statement, Joshua claimed that 18 out of 31 division heads had signed statutory declarations demanding that Baru be replaced.

"We took out an oath. That shows we are so serious and sincere in knowing what we did is right," he said when contacted.

Malaysiakini cannot independently verify this claim. Joshua declined to name the 17 other division heads.

He said that statutory declarations would be handed to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.

When contacted, Baru's works ministry special functions officer Vernon Kedit disputed the figure cited by Joshua. He said more would be revealed during the press conference tomorrow.

According to Joshua, the 18 division leaders believed that Baru wore too many hats. Apart from being the federal minister of works, Baru is also the Selangau MP and Ba'Kalalan state assemblyperson.

"He should be relieved to have one less burden and to focus on his ministry instead.

"Sarawak PKR needs a leader who can lead and dedicate more time to engage with all division leaders, especially with 12th state election just around the corner," he said.

Joshua claimed that Baru has allegedly yet to call for a meeting on election preparations despite having been instructed by PKR president Anwar Ibrahim to do so.

"There was an instruction by the party president to prepare for the state election in April. And (after) eight months, nothing had happened.

"We have not called (for a meeting on state election), never mentioned nor discussed in our council meetings. We are worried that when the state legislative assembly is dissolved, we will be caught unprepared," he said.

Malaysiakini cannot independently verify this claim. Kedit said that this too would be addressed by Baru tomorrow.

Sarawak PKR is currently divided into two groups. One group led by Baru controlled the state PKR leadership and has threatened to cancel the biennial state PKR convention in Miri.

The threat stemmed from PKR Youth's decision to break the tradition of having the PKR deputy president officiate its national delegates' congress in December.

The movement had argued that PKR deputy president Azmin Ali sat on the invitation for six weeks and decided to invite PKR advisor Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail instead. Azmin has denied the allegation.

Following this, the Miri PKR division - the host for the convention - said the biennial convention was agreed upon earlier by the state PKR leadership and cannot be terminated unilaterally.

Baru is a known ally of Azmin. - Mkini