Maria: I thought I could bring Anwar-Azmin factions together

INTERVIEW | Before the political turmoil that erupted last week which caused the fall of the Pakatan Harapan-led government, PKR's Maria Chin Abdullah had attempted to mediate the factional conflict between PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and his former deputy Azmin Ali.

In an interview with Malaysiakini yesterday, Maria (above) revealed she was among the PKR members who wanted the party to be united and thus, took up the role as peacemaker.

The former Bersih chairperson said her relationship with both individuals can be traced back to her involvement as an activist in Bersih as Anwar and Azmin had helped the electoral watchdog to conduct its rallies.

"I had wanted to see both of them work together, otherwise how are we going to run the country when our party is so divided?" she said.

"I talked to both sides to see if some kind of unity can be struck. One attempt made was during the party congress (in December 2019), which was to ask them to come together, and they did for a while," she said.

"Before the congress, they had met and talked about how to conduct the congress. I thought that was all right, you know?" Maria said, referring to the ceasefire reportedly struck by Anwar and Azmin before the congress.

Things had gone ugly when a scuffle broke out before the PKR Youth congress, and during the PKR congress Azmin and his faction staged a mass walkout.

Maria, who is Petaling Jaya MP, was among the leaders that appeared at the press conference later with Azmin after the incident. That further deepened perception that she was part of Azmin's group of supporters.

Maria, however, dismissed the allegation that she was Azmin's ally and stressed that she is for the party.

She said she appeared at Azmin's side during the PKR congress as she was upset by the PKR Youth brawl and the sequence of events.

Maria was also seen at the Sheraton Hotel in Petaling Jaya on Feb 23 where a plot was hatched to oust the Harapan government. She had said she appeared at the hotel to object the formation of a backdoor government.

She said Azmin's faction did not approach her to support Dr Mahathir Mohamad and later Muhyiddin Yassin, to become the prime minister.

She added she only signed four statutory declarations (SDs) initiated by PKR and Harapan - three of them pushed for Anwar to be made PM while the last one supported Mahathir as the premier.

"I supported the transition plan, otherwise I wouldn't have signed the SDs," she said.

Looking back at the "Sheraton Move", Maria said Azmin was part of the plot and he had betrayed Malaysians as they voted for Harapan and not Perikatan Nasional.

"I am very angry at what he had done to the country. It is not just about the party or Anwar. The people put so much hope on us and you (Azmin) betrayed that. To me, that is very bad," added Maria.

"When I heard that, I really cried one whole day. My sons didn't know what to do with me," she said.

Azmin and his group defected from the party, but not all of his followers went with him. PKR vice-president Tian Chua (below), who is known to be an Azmin loyalist, was attacked by angry PKR members after that on March 1.

"I think it is very unfortunate that Tian Chua got attacked for having differing views," she said.

According to her, the party has to start uniting all its soldier in order to go into battle instead of destroying half of its army.

"I don't want to use the word 'purging', but you can't because we are in a situation of crisis, it is important for the party to unite," she said.

"I feel that the party president also feels that way because he was also calling for unity and for us to move on to build the party and deal with the crisis in the country. That's a good call," she added.  - Mkini