Two PKR reps who quit party were troublemakers, says Anwar

PKR president Anwar Ibrahim said he was not surprised when the two Kedah state assemblypersons left the party, claiming they were troublemakers.

"I have already said about these two assemblypersons before, this is not new. They have been making trouble for over a year.

"They did not attend any party meetings, they did not cooperate with the party, and they even refused to join Kedah PKR leadership meeting which I attended and invited all party representatives to sit together," he said in a special talk show on Facebook Live today.

On Tuesday, PKR's Sidam representative Dr Robert Ling Kui Ee and Lunas representative Azman Nasrudin (above) announced their resignation from the party to become independents, supporting the Perikatan Nasional (PN) loose coalition. 

The announcement by Ling and Azman shook Pakatan Harapan's hold of the state administration, as Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir has supposedly lost the majority in the state assembly. Mukhriz had since challenged PN to prove it the state assembly.

Anwar said PKR leaders leaving the party would not necessarily weaken it.

He pointed out that politicians jumping parties happen all the time but the parties stayed on.

During the talk session, Anwar (photo) cited instances in other political parties which saw their top leaders quitting their platforms, but the parties are still standing until today.

Among the names he mentioned were Umno chiefs Onn Jaafar, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Hussein Onn and Dr Mahathir Mohamad, as well as Ahmad Fuad Hassan and Mohd Asri Muda from PAS.

"Asri Muda, the person responsible for building PAS, especially in Kelantan, joined forces with Tok Guru Nik Aziz, and he also took in many other figures.

"What happened later? He quit PAS. But PAS still continued as a party," said Anwar.

The opposition leader said he even welcomed PKR members who could not agree with the party leadership.

While it was fine for PKR to have members who criticise its own leaders, he stressed that throwing weight behind enemies is not acceptable.

Although Anwar did not mention any specific names, it is understood that he was referring to his former deputy president Azmin Ali who had defected to join Muhyiddin Yassin's faction in Bersatu and other parties to form PN.

"It is not wrong to support any leaders in the party. It is not wrong to criticise party president, including myself.

"But, if they stay in the party and support another party, that is impossible. So I suggest that these people should quit the party peacefully. This is a democratic country, so no need to fight or be enemies," he said. - Mkini