Rafizi reveals split in PKR leadership

PETALING JAYA: Rafizi Ramli has disclosed a split in the PKR leadership, claiming he had abstained from attending the party's political bureau meetings since August last year due to disagreements among its leaders.
The PKR vice-president said since the incarceration of party de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, decisions at the political bureau level were proving hard to achieve especially when there were differences in opinions.
The Pandan MP cited the three-cornered fight in the Sarawak elections in May 2016 despite an agreement on seat allocations and the decision by Pakatan Harapan to drag its feet in assisting in the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections as two instances which led to his MIA status in the bureau meetings.
He said he was even forced to mobilise the party's machinery for the two by-elections without the go ahead from the political bureau.
"As a result, the meetings would turn into a place for political polemics, and it has only gotten worse since the issue of cooperating with PAS, as it involved the Selangor government.
"As the deputy president's (Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali) stand is to leave the door open for PAS right up to the elections to ensure a victory in Selangor, any efforts that are seen as being unfavourable to PAS would be rejected," he said in a statement today.
PKR Youth deputy chief Dr Afif Bahardin had on Monday took a swipe at Rafizi for questioning the party's decision to negotiate with PAS on an electoral pact, while pointing out that the latter had not attended the bureau meetings for a long time.
Party central leadership council member Latheefa Koya also criticised an unnamed senior party member on her Facebook on Monday, claiming he was out to split the party, and that he was an "Umno agent".
Dismissing the claims, Rafizi said the accusations was not new, and stressed that he had never met with any ministers or leaders of Umno and Barisan Nasional except in Parliament.
Rafizi noted that while he was absent from the political bureau meetings, he still meets up with party president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, secretary-general Datuk Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and fellow vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar on a weekly basis.