PETALING JAYA, Sept 8 — The youth wings of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) today came together in a show of unity to urge top leaders of the tripartite pact to end their bickering and reach a consensus soon to end the worsening crisis over the Selangor mentri besar post.
In a joint statement, the youth wings of PKR, PAS and DAP said they will organise separate meetings with PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang to press home the point.
“We want a muafakat in PR leadership. Just like how we can have a muafakat,” PAS Youth chief Suhaizan Kaiat said, using the Malay word for “consensus”.
“We’re showing how the youth wings can have a consensus to state a joint opinion. We hope this will be a good guide towards the PR leadership themselves.”
The press conference was also attended by PKR Youth chief Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad and the DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy) national chief Teo Kok Seong, including several other wing executive councillors from the three parties.
The wings urged for the crisis to be resolved as soon as possible, warning that the public’s trust in PR will continue to erode as the crisis prolongs
Despite calling for a consensus between the top leadership, however, the wings today refused to jointly endorse PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah or any other nominee as the sole candidate for the mentri besar post.
“We will leave that to the wisdom of the top leadership,” said Suhaizan.
In their statement, the wings also announced that they will meet Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi this Thursday to press him on the recent spate of sedition charges despite Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s pledge to abolish the Sedition Act 1948.
They also demanded the Inspector-General of Police to reopen the case of DAP aide Teo Beng Hock, after the Court of Appeal decided last week to overturn the Coroner Court’s open case decision.
PAS has recently been at loggerheads with ally PKR and DAP over the Selangor mentri besar crisis and the ouster of Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.
While the PR leadership has agreed on PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as their sole candidate to replace Khalid, PAS has insisted on adding PKR deputy president Azmin as their second candidate.
The Sultan of Selangor said today he was disappointed with PKR and DAP for insisting on submitting only one name for consideration as the next mentri besar despite his having requested late last month that they submit more than two names.
His statement stressed that the request for more than two candidates to be submitted was by convention, to give the Sultan the option to choose a mentri besar based not only on majority support in the state legislative assembly but also by the candidate’s skills, experience, integrity and capabilities.
