PETALING JAYA, July 19 — Led by Kedah PKR chief Datuk Johari Abdul, five other state party leaders called on their colleagues to stand solidly behind their president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who has come under fire from allies over a sex scandal conspiracy.
The six state party leaders urged the rest of their PKR peers to unite and focus on delivering the Pakatan Harapan election promises instead of attacking each other over the prime ministerial succession plan.
“We are confident that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is a leader who will keep to the promises made to the people in the last general election, and we will stand by him to ensure all the promises are fulfilled,” the six said in a joint letter.
The other five whose names were in the letter were: Perlis PKR chief Amran Kamarudin, Melaka PKR chief Halim Bachik, Federal Territories PKR chief Zahir Hassan, Terengganu PKR chief Azan Ismail and Kelantan PKR chief Datuk Seri Mohamad Supardi Md Noor.
Johari told reporters that eight others including Selangor Mentri Besar Amirudin Shaari would add their signatures to the letter of proclaiming their “undivided” support for Anwar at the PKR retreat in Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan this weekend.
“Insya Allah, insya Allah. There are some who have given their commitment that they will sign. There are two or three who are not contactable but God willing, the moment they reach Port Dickson, we will sign and we will upload it onto our website and in the media for display,” he said.
The Sungai Petani MP admitted that the six have not been able to contact Amirudin to date when asked why the Selangor mentri besar’s signature was missing from the letter if he was in support.
“Well, we have not been able to say much to him, but he will be in Port Dickson afterwards,” he added.
Johari said the six state leaders decided to form their own PKR state leaders’ council to discuss state-level development and public welfare.
He said today marked its first meeting.
Johari who is the coordinator of the council, said that the new pact is also formed to prevent leaders from unnecessary squabbles.
He said their support for Anwar did not indicate they were not supportive of other top leaders, including their party deputy president, Datuk Seri Azmin Ali.
“Being state chiefs, our main objective is to make sure that everyone — whoever is in the state — will be our responsibility. So we are the state chiefs who will ensure that development happens as per our promise to the people in the past general election.
“So, of course, we place the president in that structure. I can’t write ‘I support president, deputy president, vice president, the council’.
“I mean that’s a long list. I’m saying here, you are the boss sir,” he replied, when asked as to why only Anwar’s name was mentioned in the letter of support and not Azmin’s.
PKR leaders will be meeting in Port Dickson at 7pm today.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is also expected to attend the meeting.
PKR’s factionalism emerged following the circulation of several sex videos purportedly of Azmin and the party’s former Santubong Youth wing chief Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz in May and which have resulted in the arrest of nine people, including Anwar’s political secretary Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak.
Two distinct lines have been drawn between Anwar and Azmin after the president yesterday said his deputy should resign if the videos were proven to be authentic while the latter told his boss to “look into the mirror”.
Haziq was sacked from the party after confessing to the sex and claiming Azmin as his partner.
Azmin has categorically denied involvement, calling the accusation an attempt to tarnish his reputation.
The police yesterday said investigations showed the videos were genuine but were unable to verify the identities of the two men in it.
The Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Abdul Hamid Bador added that investigations showed the videos were a political conspiracy aimed to topple another individual, without naming anyone.
