Is Azmin serious about making Anwar PM, asks PKR vice-president candidate

Sungai Siput MP S Kesavan says Mohamed Azmin Ali never publicly declared his support for PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim as the next prime minister.

Sungai Siput MP S Kesavan says the PKR leadership must be sincere about working with Anwar Ibrahim.

KOTA KINABALU: A candidate for one of PKR’s vice-president’s posts has questioned the loyalty of deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali to the party’s de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Sungai Siput MP S Kesavan, who will be contesting the position together with 11 others, said he was not sure whether Azmin really wanted Anwar to become the next prime minister.

“I am not confident about the deputy president because until this day, he has never come out to state his full support for Anwar as prime minister,” he said at a party function here yesterday.

He was responding to a question during a debate session on what the present issue was with the PKR deputy presidency post.

For this reason, Kesavan said, there should be a change in leadership to one that was sincere about working with Anwar.

“We don’t want a leader who looks loyal but is secretly trying to fail the real reforms agenda, what more uphold Anwar as the prime minister.

“That is why we want to support Rafizi as the deputy president, to ensure that this agenda and Anwar being the prime minister can be carried out,” he said to Sabah PKR members.

Selayang MP William Leong, who is also contesting for a vice-president’s post, said he was willing to give up his parliamentary seat for Anwar as the PKR leader was more important than he was.

“I joined PKR not to seek positions or to become a minister or MP. Anwar is the symbol of the country’s reform. If he had not sacrificed his freedom, we would not have a new government today.

“Anwar is far more important to the nation’s reform, which is why I have no problem making way for him. I think all MPs who are sincere about reforms would have no trouble doing the same,” he said.

The three-term parliamentarian previously said he was willing to make way for Anwar, but dismissed suggestions that he was prepared to be the sacrificial lamb, saying Anwar had been a political victim. -FMT