THE chaos at PKR’s annual congress this weekend won’t affect ties with other parties in Pakatan Harapan, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The coalition’s chairman said the feud is an internal party matter.

“There will be misunderstandings between leaders but I am confident that it won’t be to the point where they can’t work with Pakatan and the administration,” Dr Mahathir told reporters after meeting the coalition’s local leaders in Langkawi today. 

The rift between PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and his deputy, Mohamed Azmin Ali, appeared to have been healed ahead of the congress, but flared up again when many delegates at proceedings called for action against Azmin and his faction.

When asked about Azmin’s claims that Anwar was overly concerned with the prime minister succession, Dr Mahathir said he did not want to interfere in the party’s affairs.

“That is PKR’s internal problem. I do not want to interfere with whatever he (Mohamed Azmin) thinks as long as we can work together as a strong government,” said the Langkawi MP.

Commenting on an Amanah delegate who said that the “flying car” project was useless and embarrassing while debating the presidential speech at the 2019 Amanah National Convention, Dr Mahathir said the project had been misunderstood.

“The mistake was in calling it a flying car. It is actually a big drone which is capable of carrying people around without having to use the roads as it can fly.

“It is okay for the people to reject it. This is just an idea, if they like it they can accept it, but if they don’t nobody will force them to do otherwise,” he said.

There were fisticuffs at the youth congress on Friday, and Azmin yesterday led his supporters in a walkout during the debates at the main congress.

Azmin and his supporters, such as PKR vice-presidents Zuraida Kamaruddin and Ali Biju, also did not to show up at today’s closing, leaving only Chua Tian Chang to address the delegates.

Yesterday, Azmin said they walked out because Anwar had reneged on their temporary truce by allowing delegates to attack him during the debates.

Azmin said Anwar had “allowed” the attacks against him by citing “Si Kitol”, a traitorous figure in classical Malay literature. – December 8, 2019.