Following the brouhaha regarding Dato’ Seri Azmin Ali’s meeting with 30 Members of Parliament (MPs) from Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional, four more MPs met him yesterday at his office in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Putrajaya.
According to a news report, the four were from Sarawak PKR, accompanied by 18 party division chiefs and 10 leadership council members, also from the state, all of whom held a press conference in support of Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian.
The group had previously expressed displeasure at the party’s central leadership for cancelling an invitation requiring Azmin to officiate a youth wing congress in his capacity as party deputy president.
Bian and his men have also refuted claims by Selangau PKR division chairman Joshua Jabeng that 18 out of 31 state division heads had pledged to remove Baru as the state party head.
SUBANG JAYA: Following the brouhaha regarding Dato’ Seri Azmin Ali’s meeting with 30 Members of Parliament (MPs) from Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional, four more MPs met him yesterday at his office in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Putrajaya.
According to a news report, the four were from Sarawak PKR, accompanied by 18 party division chiefs and 10 leadership council members, also from the state, all of whom held a press conference in support of Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian.
The group had previously expressed displeasure at the party’s central leadership for cancelling an invitation requiring Azmin to officiate a youth wing congress in his capacity as party deputy president.
On the 14thof November, Azmin spoke of hidden hands that wanted to prevent him from speaking out at the national-level congress.
The next day, Bian joined seven others in signing a statement telling the party’s “top national leaders” to listen to members or forget about holding a convention in Sarawak.
According to reports, the youth congress will now be officiated by Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in her capacity as advisor to the PKR central leadership council and Deputy Prime Minister.
Bian and his team are crying foul as the congress has traditionally been officiated by the party’s deputy president, not the country’s Deputy Prime Minister.
Bian also refuted claims by Selangau PKR division chairman Joshua Jabeng that 18 out of 31 state division heads had pledged to remove Baru as the state party head.
“We are fully aware of the characters in Sarawak who are manoeuvring and soliciting the support of several divisional heads in the state to surreptitiously undermine my leadership by replacing me.
“We know that statutory declarations calling for my removal have been circulated among the divisional heads and that a huge amount money is being offered to sweeten the deal.
“And, we are also aware that the move to remove me as the state chairman was planned to be executed during the state convention.
“This goes against the democratic principles that the party adheres to and we reject such insidious moves,” Bian told a press conference in Putrajaya yesterday.
According to him, PKR Sarawak will not budge from its decision not to hold the state-level party convention on Saturday in protest of the decision to cancel Azmin’s invitation.
“We are making our stand as state leaders. This is our position.
“If they think we have gone against the constitution, that is up to them to decide.”
THE THIRD FORCE
