KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim must do more to resolve a sex video scandal implicating his deputy instead of leaving the matter entirely to Pakatan Harapan chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said Datuk A. Kadir Jasin.
On his blog yesterday, the news veteran said he told Anwar as much after running into him while both were waiting to meet with the prime minister.
“I told Anwar that this is an affair of his party — Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) — and it concerns a very senior person in its leadership. The party has to take responsibility and advise the prime minister accordingly,” he said.
“PH is a coalition of equals. So member parties must play equal role and take equal responsibility, more so in a matter as sensational as this.”
Last month, Anwar said he told Dr Mahathir that he would not accuse anybody as the mastermind of the scandal due to the “political elements” involved.
Kadir said Anwar could have left the issue to Dr Mahathir were they still in Umno and Barisan Nasional, but argued that this was untenable in the PH coalition as it professes that no party is the dominant force in the pact.
PH parties must also do more to ensure their chief ministers and mentri besar act consistently with the coalition’s national policies and goals, Kadir said before adding that they should also not leave this entirely to the prime minister.
They must ensure that the leaders they nominate perform to expectations and do not resist the coalition’s efforts, he added.
“This should be the case because they were the ones who recommended to him the candidates from their respective parties for him to consider.”
The sex clips first emerged in May and former Santubong PKR Youth Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz then claimed he was one of two men in them and accused PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Azmin Ali of being the other.
Azmin has consistently rejected the allegation while PKR also sacked Haziq last week.
On June 13 Dr Mahathir dismissed the sex tapes as likely to be fake, and condemned its use as little more than “dirty tactics” to run down certain individuals.
Yesterday, Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the special task force formed to investigate the matter will proceed with its probe regardless of the prime minister’s personal views of the clips.
