Anwar to campaign for Azmin in Sabah?

By FMT Staff

KOTA KINABALU: PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim and vice-president Azmin Ali are in Sabah today, prompting a blogger to question if the duo plan to hit the campaign trail.

Gombak MP Azmin is regarded as the opposition leader's protege and despite remaining above the fray on the surface, it is widely speculated that Anwar wants him to be the next deputy president.

However, the plan has hit a snag in the form of supreme council member Zaid Ibrahim, who has announced his interest to vie for the post.

Commenting on the duo's visit to Sabah, blogger Haris Ibrahim asked: “Is Anwar campaigning for Azmin already?”

Azmin is yet to announce his candidacy, but Zaid has hinted that the former is already pulling out Umno-like weapons from his arsenal to undermine the latter's chances.

According to Haris, the Anwar-Azmin tag team's first stop is Tuaran, where the current division chief Ansari Abdullah is facing an uphill battle to retain his post.

Describing him as Anwar's “chosen Muslim poster boy”, the blogger said Ansari is being challenged by Edward Linggu, who is aligned to Sabah PKR strongman Jeffrey Kitingan.

Next stop - 'Jeffrey's territory'
On Malaysia Day (Thursday), Haris said the pair is scheduled to visit Keningau, which is “Jeffrey Kitingan territory”.

“Both Anwar and Azmin can expect the best of Sabah hospitality, I’m informed,” he added in a sarcastic referrence to the tension in Sabah PKR.

Recently, the PKR disciplinary board hauled up 12 local leaders aligned to Jeffrey over their role in the aborted attempt to form a splinter party called Parti Cinta Malaysia.

Following this, the supreme council suspended three division leaders and issued a stern warning to the remaining nine.

A livid Jeffrey then accused Anwar of reneging on his word that no action will be taken. The promise was made during the peace talks held last year to diffuse the leadership crisis.

The PKR leadership claimed that during the negotiations, it was under the impression that the rebel group was contemplating on forming a new party and was not aware that an application had been submitted to the Registrar of Societies.

However, Jeffrey rubbished this argument.

Following the visit to Keningau, Haris said Anwar will return to the peninsula while Azmin will take his campaign into neighbouring Sarawak.

Meanwhile, party insiders said if it is true that Anwar will be campaigning for Azmin in Sabah, this means that PKR and its boss do not practise what is preached.

“Why gloat about having free and fair elections when such tactics are used to cull opponents. The code of conduct states that nobody should abuse their position and power to sway votes.”

Observers also noted that the bitter battle shaping up between Azmin and Zaid is similar to Umno's political culture and does not bode well for PKR's image.

Then again, said insiders, Anwar, Azmin and Zaid are all products of Umno.

Yesterday, incumbent deputy president Syed Husin Ali announced that he will not be defending his post during November's elections.