KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — Pakatan Rakyat must review its internal relationships to strengthen the pact’s “progressive” parties, Opposition Leader and PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said today.

She also said PKR acknowledges that there are currently problems within PR that demand immediate attention, but did not specify what she meant by those problems.

“Keadilan (PKR) believes that there is an urgent need to review the working relationship in order to strengthen the coalition of progressive political parties that holds to the Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework, in line with the aspirations of the rakyat demanding for change,” she said in a statement.

“Keadilan hereby suggests that continued discussions must be held with political parties and non-government organizations within the wider framework of civil society in order to shape the future direction of a strong Malaysia,” Dr Wan Azizah added but did not elaborate on which NGOs she was referring to.

The PKR chief also urged PR parties to focus on key issues affecting Malaysians such as economic and educational reforms, the tackling of corruption and abuse of power.

Dr Wan Azizah’s remarks come amid plans by Persatuan Ummah Sejahtera Malaysia (PasMa) to officially join PR as a political party and replace PAS.

PasMa president Datuk Phahrolrazi Zawawi said over the weekend that PAS has suffered irreversible damage to its reputation with the exclusion of the “progressives” in its latest internal election, which was compounded by the Islamist party’s decision to cut ties with its DAP ally.

Phahrolrazi said the only way forward for the opposition parties to take on the Barisan Nasional ruling coalition in the next general election was to form a new alliance, with a new political party to take PAS’s old spot.

Phahrolrazi said that the ideology of the new party will be similar to that of PAS before it severed ties with DAP, with emphasis on protecting the rights of all while practising a policy of inclusivity.

He claimed that a couple progressive PAS leaders had already contacted him to express their support for a PAS-replacement party.

PAS had on June 6 confirmed its decision to sever ties with DAP while still remaining in PR with PKR, after its motion to do so was approved without debate.

The two parties have been openly hostile over PAS’s ambition to enforce hudud in Kelantan.

The development drove DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang to declare PR dead and awaiting “funeral rites”.