PORT DICKSON: PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim pledged today to work together with his Number Two Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali “as a team”.
He told a press conference that like him, Azmin was elected to his post as PKR deputy president and thus he would not have any problems working together with the latter.
Anwar and Azmin were elected to the top two posts of PKR at the party elections in November last year.
Earlier, Anwar cemented his position as the Number One in PKR when about 120 of the estimated 140 members of the central party leadership, who were present at a three-day retreat, resolved to endorse him as their leader.
The move to extend an olive branch came amidst growing discontent within PKR over the differences between the two leaders pertaining to the emergence of a gay sex video implicating Azmin, who is the Economic Affairs Minister.
“Azmin is the deputy president. We need to work as a team, to conduct regular meetings and discussions,“ he told the press conference. “There’s no problem, it is still a team.”
In the resolution the party leaders made a commitment to strengthen PKR based on the principles of its constitution.
“We hereby give our full support to party president Anwar to lead the party to be the cornerstone of Pakatan Harapan, in line with all the provisions as contained in the party’s constitution,“ the statement read.
Among the notable absentees at the retreat, and who failed to sign the resolution, were Azmin and his strong allies PKR vice-president Zuraida Kamaruddin and the party’s Sarawak chief Baru Bian.
Last Wednesday, Azmin told Anwar to look himself in the mirror after Anwar urged him to resign from his positions should he be confirmed to be one of the individuals in the sex videos.
Anwar later downplayed the exchange between the pair, claiming his deputy was going through a tough time, and probably did not fully comprehend his remarks.
On Saturday, the Port Dickson MP said he was glad that the probes conducted by the police on the videos confirmed that Azmin was not the person in the sex clips, and that action would be taken against those involved in spreading them.
In response, Mohamed Azmin said he took note of the president’s stand.
