PKR defends Amanah party hoppers

PKR has defended its decision to accept elected representatives from other Pakatan Harapan (PH) parties into its fold, as tension grows with Amanah whose state assemblymen had crossed over to join PKR.

A PKR Youth leader also slammed the decision by two of its MPs to become independents friendly to the ruling Perikatan Nasional (PN) bloc.

“Amanah should be open to its members wanting to join PKR and likewise PKR members should also be open to choosing any other party, either Amanah or DAP,” PKR Youth secretary Syukri Razab told MalaysiaNow.

He said by questioning those who joined PKR, Amanah leaders were violating the democratic rights of their assemblymen.

However, Syukri said the same democractic rights could not be applied to those joining the “enemies”.

“We are concerned there are members who move to Perikatan Nasional (PN) who are political enemies,” he said, referring to the decision by two PKR MPs to quit their party and declare their support for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

Tebrau MP Steven Choong and Julau MP Larry Sng had met Muhyiddin today to declare themselves as independents friendly to the ruling bloc.

The move came a day after three Amanah assemblymen in Johor became PKR members, drawing protest from Amanah leaders.

The trio in Johor – Khairuddin A Rahim (Senggarang), Faizul Amri Adnan (Serom) and Muhamad Said Jonit (Mahkota) – have had their applications to join PKR accepted.

They join two other Amanah assemblymen from Selangor – Mohd Fakhrulrazi Mohd Mokhtar (Meru) and Ahmad Mustain Othman (Sabak) – who crossed over to PKR last year.

Syukri said the Amanah assemblymen could function better in PKR.

He also took a swipe at Amanah, saying the party was still not opposed to former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, whom he blamed for the collapse of the PH government last year.

Earlier, Amanah’s Youth chief Shazni Munir Ithnin said it reeked of hypocrisy for PKR to accept its assemblymen as members, on the same day that its top leadership had condemned alleged attempts by the ruling bloc to buy PKR MPs.

“We hereby remind PKR not to be hypocritical and speak with forked tongues. PKR president Anwar Ibrahim must enforce the resolve to reject party-hopping within component parties that clearly benefits one party and harms the other. Such politics of back-stabbing should not be encouraged,” Shazni said.