PKR youth is sticking with plans to break tradition by inviting Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to officiate its annual congress meeting next month instead of deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali.

Youth chief Akmal Nasir said the wing’s national leadership is responsible for this decision made at a meeting on October 20.

In his first remarks on the matter, Akmal said this is also a message to all party members that the youth wing will support leaders who are loyal to PKR’s struggle.

“We have decided that Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail will officiate the youth congress, as she is also PKR adviser.

“PKR youth is sending a clear message to all PKR members that the youth will support leaders who uphold PKR’s struggle.

“The youth will use its annual congress as a platform for important issues and not for the politics of self-interest,” he said in a statement today.

Sources previously told The Malaysian Insight that the youth wing decided to invite Wan Azizah instead of Azmin as per tradition, following the fallout between the economic affairs minister and PKR president Anwar Ibrahim.

The discord is over a sex video clip which implicates Azmin, but which the deputy president as denied and called a plot to destroy him.

Anwar and Azmin have clashed openly over the sex video.

Azmin has aggravated ties with the leadership by refusing to attend the PKR leadership council meetings or its weekly political bureau meetings.

He has also publicly backed Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to finish his term in office which goes again the transition plan for Anwar to take over earlier.

Yesterday, party secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the youth had the freedom to decide who they wanted to officiate their annual congress.

Akmal’s deputy, Hilman Idham, however, has voiced disagreement with the snub against Azmin, saying it is wrong to have invited the deputy president only to retract the invitation. – November 13, 2019.