He said despite announcing her resignation as the party vice-president, Nurul Izzah never left the party and was still contributing in her own capacity.
“There are many ways to contribute to the party. Everybody in PKR can play their roles in different ways.
“So long as you are in the party, you have room to contribute to building and leading the party,” he said on the sidelines of the “Electoral System Reform and Strengthening Democracy Forum” by Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (Abim) and Bersih 2.0.
Chua was commenting on Nurul Izzah’s resignation as party vice-president and her decision to turn down the post of Penang PKR chief following criticism of cronyism in the selection of state chiefs.
Besides Nurul Izzah, PKR’s Hassan Karim also turned down the post of Johor PKR chief, hours after Nurul Izzah’s announcement.
Chua said their decisions must be respected and he remained confident that both leaders would continue to play important roles in the party.
The former Batu lawmaker also squashed rumours surrounding Nurul Izzah, who was recently spotted having lunch with former Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli and Umno Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin.
He said that it should not be seen as an issue in a free country like Malaysia where everyone is free to meet anyone anywhere they wished.
He said media reports that the three were planning a new political movement was pure speculation.
“I think we shouldn’t try to interpret every action by politicians.
“We are in a free society. People have the right to make their own judgement and that is something we have to accept,” he said.
The three politicians have of late been sharing photos of themselves together on social media.
The latest one shared on Dec 18 by Khairy showed the trio having tea at Alexis Bistro at the Bangsar Shopping Centre, shortly after Nurul Izzah’s announcement to resign from her party posts.
The picture, which was on Khairy’s Instastory, was captioned: “That’s how filters work @rafiziramli.”
Differences in opinion
Earlier, during the forum, Chua said the challenge faced by the Pakatan Harapan government in its reform agenda was no longer just ensuring freedom of speech.
He said Malaysians today were still getting used to accepting differences in opinion.
“Two weeks ago, we had the anti-ICERD rally. At the same time, other groups urged the government to ban this assembly to avoid racial tensions,” he said, referring to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
“The issue here is pressure from one group to prevent another group from voicing out their concerns.”
He said the task at hand for the reform agenda is how to educate society to have more tolerance and not be too sensitive when it comes to differences in opinion.