Selangor Amanah chief turns heat down a notch

Selangor Amanah head Izham Hashim said that his description of Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamad Azmin Ali as a "joker" has been misconstrued.

"What I meant was that it is funny for him to say that four meetings have been held and 80 percent of seats have already been finalised.

"Amanah, DAP and Bersatu are unaware of this," Izham told Malaysiakini last night.

He said the term "joker" was meant to described that Azmin's statement as "lawak (funny)".

Malaysiakini had used the word "badut" (clown) in place of "joker" in its Bahasa Malaysia version of the story.

The "joker" remark has led to a flurry of angry statements from Selangor PKR leaders who came to Azmin's defence and accused Izham of being rude.

Selangor PKR leaders are also up in arms over Izham's claim that Azmin (photo) was not fit to be menteri besar following the allegedly stalled state seat negotiations.

Izham clarified that what he meant was that as Selangor Harapan chairperson, Azmin should be able to handle coalition affairs better.

"He should call regular meetings to allow problems to be settled internally," he said.

There are conflicting accounts on the status of seat distribution among Selangor Harapan with PKR claiming talks were ongoing while the other three parties say otherwise.

However, Malaysiakini has learned that the heart of the problem lies with the distribution of 20 state seats which were previously contested by PAS in 2013.

Yesterday, Azmin had called Amanah a liar for claiming that the Selangor seat talks were stalled, prompting Izham to issue his angry retort.- Mkini