PKR leaders cannot escape being attacked with accusations of nepotism by the party’s rivals now that Nurul Izzah Anwar is running for the PKR deputy presidency, says Rafizi Ramli.
Rafizi said Nurul Izzah, the daughter of party president Anwar Ibrahim, would undoubtedly have her own arguments to put forth.
However, the incumbent deputy president said PKR as a whole must be ready for questions from the rakyat and attacks from opposition parties on the perception of nepotism.
“With Nurul Izzah contesting for the deputy presidency, our party cannot run away from the ‘nepotism’ issue. I have no plans on prolonging this topic but I fear the public perception against the party,” he said during a live recording of his Yang Bakar Menteri podcast at the MBSJ multipurpose hall in Serdang here.
Zaliha ignored hundreds of objections
Rafizi also took issue with PKR election committee chairman Dr Zaliha Mustafa over her handling of the party’s divisional elections, which had resulted in many of his allies losing their contest.
He accused her of ignoring hundreds of objections filed by members.
Rafizi said the party’s election panel was supposed to be an independent body that filters candidates vying for posts and identifies issues early on.
He questioned how the committee could have such a major oversight in the contest for the Jempol division chief’s post, which had to be redone after the initial winner was found to be a Pejuang leader in Melaka.
“If Zaliha wants to be angry with me, go ahead. But this is her committee’s responsibility. I can’t intervene as deputy president because there’s a conflict of interest since I’m contesting.
“When there are objections, the committee should respond to each one. This time, there were hundreds of objections that went unanswered. When we ask about it, they feign ignorance.
“I know for a fact that, in this divisional election, they only started going through the objections after the polls were over. People were already angry by then,” he said.
Rafizi said there were also claims that one winner was an Umno member, and that the issue of party memberships fell under the secretary-general, Fuziah Salleh.
“The secretary-general must take action. The election committee must also take action.”
He said he could not speak out previously otherwise he would be accused of trying to influence the elections. However, he insisted that a lot of improvements needed to be made as to how PKR conducted its internal polls.
“Whoever becomes the election committee chairman after this must remember that they hold a heavy responsibility because they are the first gatekeeper to the party to prevent such incidents.
“So if members object (to something), don’t look down on them and act as though you have bigger issues to handle,” he said.
