PKR president Anwar Ibrahim has refused will not apologise over the sacking of supreme council member Zakaria Hamid, saying the apology demand sent in by 20 central leadership council members was disputable.
At a press conference in Penang today, Anwar said he was open to the party's disciplinary board reviewing Zakaria's sacking as that is the right of every party member.
However, Anwar claimed part of the letter demanding the apology purportedly signed by deputy president Azmin Ali has now been disputed by two vice-presidents, R Sivarasa and Tian Chua.
"They did not agree to the part asking me to apologise over the sacking of Zakaria, that part was not in the draft," Anwar told reporters.
"This means something has been manipulated in the letter as the letter is not entirely true," he added.
Asked who manipulated the letter's contents, Anwar said: "I do not know but it was signed by the deputy president". A statement has to be agreed by all, but parts of it were not in the draft, let them clear that up first," Anwar noted.
"It is better for Zakaria to submit his own appeal over his sacking. This is not a question of politics or factional fight in the party but that PKR was built based on our policy of reforms including fighting corruption,".
"Although MACC has admitted they mistakenly sent the letter to PKR, however, the former has not disputed the contents of the letter, which implicated Zakaria," said Anwar.
The PKR president was asked regarding a memorandum of objection signed by Azmin and central leadership council members aligned to him, urging Anwar to apologise for the decision which allegedly did not receive two-thirds support from the council.
The statement was signed by Azmin, vice-presidents Zuraida Kamaruddin, Tian Chua and 17 others including Zakaria.
PKR is embroiled in a factional fight between Anwar and Azmin, reportedly over the next prime ministership.
Meanwhile, at the same press conference, PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution revealed the contents of the MACC letter on Zakaria by reading it out to the press.
Saifuddin said PKR received the letter on Oct 23 in which the MACC specifically pointed out the name of the offender, his offence, the date and venue where the alleged incident happened and details of the people questioned.
According to the letter, Zakaria had allegedly been offered a RM20,000 project involving the Public Works Department.
Previously it was reported that this allegedly took place around the time he was running for a seat on the PKR central leadership council.
"There is also a statement of claim by the DPP who recommended that action be taken against Zakaria," Saifuddin said.
Saifuddin, who is also Kulim-Bandar Bahru MP, said the letter in its entirety had been presented to the party's leadership council.
He added that the party's action earlier was based on the statement of claim by the highest corruption investigating authority.
Saifuddin said a letter was then sent to Zakaria and he has two weeks to appeal.
If he does, the party's disciplinary board will then review it and make its recommendations to the supreme council, Saifuddin added.
"After reading the contents of the letter, do you think we should apologise?"
Before the press conference ended, Saifuddin was asked if PKR was prepared for a major split in the party due to the factional conflict.
"We have been through many episodes, we are prepared to face anything," he replied.
The press conference was held after Anwar attended the "Islam-Confuciousism Civilisational Dialogue" event held at the Spice Arena in Bayan Baru. - Mkini
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