KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 — Pakatan Rakyat might be forced to make “difficult decisions” if the opposition pact fails to reach a consensual agreement soon over who is to be Selangor mentri besar, de facto chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today.

Ahead of PR’s presidential meeting this weekend to resolve the leadership crisis, Anwar said the alliance won’t break up over the choice for the next mentri besar but only if PKR, DAP or PAS violates their common core principles of transparency, integrity and accountability in government.

“Each member party of the coalition must therefore respect collective decisions made after consultation,” the de facto PKR leader said in a statement.

“Failure to respect and honour this principle of adherence may warrant some difficult decisions to be made,” he added.

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He pointed out that the PR leadership had an understanding on which party had the right to choose the Selangor MB, just as PKR respected the right of its allies to select the chief minister in other states.

PKR secretary-general Datuk Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said in a statement last month that at the PR leadership council’s meeting on July 23, PAS and the DAP had reiterated their stand that the right to select the Selangor MB belonged to PKR.

Shortly after the meeting, however, PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang publicly threw his support behind Khalid, complicating PKR’s plans to replace Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim with party president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

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The recent leaked WhatsApp message from a PAS central committee member on a proposal for the Islamist party to leave PR and join forces with Umno to retain Khalid as MB further intensified the conflict.

Anwar expressed concern today with the “divisive and racist” tone by some “minor” PR leaders, but did not specify who.

“We believe the appropriate disciplinary action should be directed against such members,” he said.

PAS research centre operations director Dr Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki had also said in his leaked WhatsApp message to the party’s central committee members that cooperating with Umno would enable PAS to quell dissent from the DAP and silence churches and minorities effectively.

Anwar also said today that there was no reason for snap elections to be called in Selangor, as Barisan Nasional (BN) only has a dozen seats in the 56-member legislative assembly and because the 13th general election was held just slightly more than a year ago.

“Nonetheless, if snap elections are called despite these critical facts, Pakatan is ready to face the electorate, and are confident that the rakyat of Selangor will again support us,” he said.

Anwar’s optimism ran contrary to Selangor DAP chairman Tony Pua’s prediction that PR would likely lose the country’s richest state in a snap poll.

Khalid has refused to give up his post, leading PKR to serve him a show-cause letter that demanded an answer by Friday.

The PR leadership council is set to meet on Sunday to come to a final decision on the issue after PAS and the DAP meet separately to decide if they will accept PKR’s nomination of Dr Wan Azizah for the job.