The Pandan MP said he was not surprised at a recent Sin Chew Daily report that quoted a source as claiming that the PKR political bureau had given him a verbal warning for revealing internal differences over negotiations with PAS to avoid three-cornered fights in the coming 14th general election (GE14).
“I am not surprised at this because it has happened before whenever there was a serious difference of opinion in the leadership,” he said in his blog post today.
He said there were a few PKR leaders who tended to give the wrong picture to the media while being quoted as “internal party sources”, even though it was contrary to the decision made by the party’s political bureau and the national leadership council.
“As long as these two or three political bureau members remain undisciplined and give wrong information to the media and the party members, there will continue to be discord,” he said in his blog post today.
Rafizi yesterday said he had received no such warning over his actions and statements reportedly deemed damaging to the good name of the party.
PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail also said there was no such disciplinary action against Rafizi at the bureau’s last meeting. “The report, quoting a party source, is not true,” he said yesterday.
Rafizi claimed that when PKR was selecting a replacement for Khalid Ibrahim as the Selangor menteri besar in 2014, certain quarters had supplied unauthentic news to media practitioners hostile to PKR.
“Although the meetings of the political bureau and the leadership council had clearly decided for only one candidate to take over the menteri besar’s post, which was (PKR president) Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, there was news from unofficial sources of a supposedly different decision being made,” he said.
“The same thing happened on the eve of the Sarawak state election (in May 2016).
“While the political bureau had decided to honour the agreement on allocation of seats made by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) presidential council, there were some bureau members who relayed a different message to PKR’s Sarawak leaders, which eventually reached me as secretary-general (then) when the grassroots wanted to get confirmation.”
Rafizi said he had decided after the Sarawak election and the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections in June last year to focus on strengthening PKR and PH in marginal seats instead of trying to counter the wrong information spread by these two or three bureau members.
He said it was better not to participate in the bureau meetings to reduce the chances of him having to correct the wrong interpretations and versions of the bureau’s decisions.
Rafizi also said he considered the differences in opinion over PKR’s negotiations with PAS had ended when the PH presidential council decided not to cooperate with PAS and this was agreed to by the PKR political bureau and deputy president Azmin Ali himself on Aug 31.