By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 — PKR vice-president Azmin Ali appeared bewildered last night when asked about his removal as the party's Sabah chief and appointment as the new Federal Territory leader, just hours after the announcement by Datin Seri Wan Azizah Ismail.
The reaction of Azmin, one of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's closest aides and loyalists, suggests he was not privy to the decision surrounding the party's leadership reshuffle as it sets out to put behind a near insurrection in Sabah.
Yesterday, party president Wan Azizah announced the appointment of Thamrin Zaini to replace Azmin as the new Sabah chief, after leaders from the state had threatened a revolt recently over the latter’s leadership.
The Gombak MP denied that he was the Federal Territory chief when reached for comment last night but said later that he could not comment because he was not present during the party’s national leadership meeting.
PKR chieftains in Sabah and Sarawak were in open revolt recently and were demanding that local leaders be appointed to head the party.
In Sabah, factions aligned to the appointed party vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan had launched a mutiny against Azmin by submitting a memorandum which, among other matters, claimed that Azmin had under-performed.
PKR insiders have indicated that Datuk Zaid Ibrahim’s decision to take six months’ leave stems from infighting and his recent decision to visit Sabah where local leaders are in open revolt over Azmin's appointment as state chief.
Party advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim tried to explain Azmin's ignorance of the decision by saying that he did not know because the decision was only made during the meeting.
“We announced only today. Only now we will inform him because we made the announcement after hearing the inputs from the different party branches during the meeting,” he told reporters last night after attending PKR’s Deepavali celebration in Batu Caves.
When pressed over why Azmin was not told about the appointment plans, Anwar hesitated and diverted the question.
“The president must have told him. You must ask the president,” he added, referring to his wife.
Earlier, Anwar was present to receive 1,000 membership forms of Batu Caves MIC members from Dr Streram Sinnasamy, the former MIC branch head in Petaling Jaya Selatan.
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