PKR leaders Mohamed Azmin Ali and Zuraida Kamaruddin are being used as pawns by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to stop party president Anwar Ibrahim from leading the country, said Otai Reformis.

Secretary of the pro-Anwar group, Abdul Razak Ismail said this is obvious after Azmin and Zuraida’s speeches at a dinner event in Kuala Lumpur last Sunday.

“We feel that Azmin and Zuraida are on Dr Mahathir’s side. It is clear Dr Mahathir does not want to pass on the post to Anwar,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

“Dr Mahathir is using Azmin and Zuraida as puppets. He is pulling the strings to deny Anwar his rights as the eighth prime minister.”

Razak also criticised the prime minister’s statement in Doha last night where Dr Mahathir said it was best to leave the decision on the transition of power to the Pakatan Harapan presidential council.

“How can Dr Mahathir make such a statement when it has been agreed that he will hand it over to Anwar and why (is he) flip-flopping now,” said Razak.

Yesterday, party vice-president Zuraida branded Otai Reformis as “mosquitoes” with no business in PKR affairs.

This came after the group sent a memorandum asking Zuraida to be dropped from the cabinet after she took a jibe at Anwar during the Shared Prosperity Vision dinner on December 8.

Responding to Zuraida’s jibe, Razak said she is wrong to call the group an outsider as 99.9% of its members are from PKR.

“For Otai Reformasi, Anwar is our idol and this group is formed because of the fight for justice for him in 1998. Something is wrong with Zuraida for saying we are irrelevant.”

He reminded Zuraida that she was part of Otai Reformis when Anwar was in prison.

Razak said she has forgotten the past after being appointed as housing and local government minister.

He added that deputy president Azmin too had banked on Anwar’s imprisonment to unseat Barisan Nasional, but had turned.

“We didn’t want to intervene in the tiff but when she started her attacks, we have to act.

“We have been patient, but when she started badmouthing the party, we used Otai Reformis as a platform to raise concerns as party leadership seems hesitant to reprimand her.” – December 15, 2019.