Purging cartels? forgive and forget Saifuddin urges party members ahead of PKR elections

SHAH ALAM - PKR incumbent secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail has urged party members to forgive their peers who remained with the party that was implicated with the “cartel” faction that had betrayed PKR during the infamous Sheraton Move.

Saifuddin said this party election, slated for May of this year, should not be used as a platform to create division within the party.

“The party elections is not a platform to erode confidence, to create division or excessively attacking until there is a repeat of what happened in the previous election to the extent the term ‘cartel’ had stick (with the party).

“This election is not an election to fight against the cartel. That's World War II, we have moved on, we have removed 11,000 members,’’ he said during a party election campaign speech recently.

The term "cartel" is associated with factions aligned with former PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.

The previous party election in 2018 saw tense and even violent clashes between Azmin and Rafizi Ramli's followers, who were both vying for the party’s deputy president post.

In that race, Azmin had won by a slim majority of 51 per cent or 71,635 votes compared to Rafizi’s 68,730 votes or 49 per cent.

Saifuddin explained that it would be unreasonable to purge the entire faction as that constitutes half of the party.

“Azmin won 51 per cent of the popular votes, Rafizi got 49 per cent. That means it is nearly equal in strength, the party is divided into two.

“Azmin’s group is dubbed as the cartel. If we want to remove the cartel, we are removing 50 per cent of the party. Is that reasonable? It's not.

“For the party to move forward the party must learn how to forgive and forget,’’ he said.

In his speech, Saifuddin explained that following the Sheraton move, PKR was badly hit as many of its office bearers including its deputy president and two of its vice president, Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin and Datuk Xavier Jayakumar had left the party.

Rafizi, who was appointed as vice president after the 2018 party elections had also taken leave while another party vice president, Nurul Izzah Anwar had also taken leave as well.

This situation, Saifuddin said, has put party president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in a bind.

“Try putting yourself in the president’s position, four of his vice presidents and his deputy are gone,’’ he said, adding that many other party divisions in several states had also collapsed due to the Sheraton move.

Saifuddin stated that during this time, he has done his best to rebuild party divisions nationwide and managed to reestablish control and help to fill out key positions at the state and division levels.

In this party election, Saifuddin is going up against Rafizi for the deputy president post.

Both men had stated the friendly competition between them would not hurt their professional and personal relationship.