SEBERANG PERAI, April 23 — A group claiming to be PKR members held a demonstration to protest against Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for contesting under the party’s logo in the 14th general election.

The group, led by A. Loganathan, held up banners at the PKR office in Seberang Jaya protesting against Dr Mahathir and said the former prime minister was the reason why their leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was jailed previously.

"It was him (Dr Mahathir) who put Anwar in jail in 1998 and the whole spirit of Reformasi was against Mahathir so we don’t want him to use the PKR logo to contest in this election,” he said.

He claimed there are 11,500 ethnic Indian PKR members in Penang who are unhappy with the Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) decision to allow Dr Mahathir to contest under PKR’s logo.

He said Dr Mahathir is no longer relevant in Malaysian politics and that PKR will only "look like a fool” to allow him to use the party logo.

"PKR can win without him. Allowing him to use the party log is an embarrassment to all of us in Penang,” he said.

He said the PKR grassroots members stand with those in Kuala Lumpur who had submitted a memorandum to the party leadership to show dissatisfaction for allowing Dr Mahathir to use the party logo.

He said the 11,500 grassroots members who are against this will boycott the campaign if the party leadership refused to heed their demands.

"We will not help with the campaigning and we will not vote for the party,” he told reporters.

Only about 20 people took part in the demonstration while some Penang Front Party members, led by its president Patrick Ooi, also turned up for the demonstration.

Ooi voiced his support for Loganathan, saying that PKR had previously criticised Dr Mahathir, but are now working with him.

In an immediate response, Permatang Pauh election machinery security director Talib Ibrahim said the group may not be PKR members.

"They are probably sent here to provoke us, we have never received any memorandum protesting against Dr Mahathir or anything from our members,” he told reporters.

Penang PKR Youth information chief Fahmi Zainol said he had checked with PKR Batu Kawan division and Loganathan was not known there.

"He does not hold any positions, as for whether he is a member, we will have to check,” he said.

When contacted, PKR Youth vice chairman Dr Afif Bahardin said these are "agent provocateurs” appointed by Umno as a tactic to cause disturbances to PH and PKR.

"Umno is using former members to cause trouble for PH and the claims that some PKR grassroots are rejecting PH’s policy on Dr Mahathir is nothing more than a political game by Umno and Barisan Nasional,” he said.

He stressed that PKR is committed to working together with all of PH’s component parties to win in the 14th general election.