OUTGOING PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail struck a conciliatory tone following the party’s fractious elections, saying certain things in the past need not be raised again.

She later told reporters she had omitted a part of her prepared speech at the opening of the PKR national congress in Shah Alam today.

“What was delivered is what I want to say,” she said,

“I didn’t think it was important. People say a lot of things about us. And if you dwell on these things it doesn’t help. It holds you back,” Dr Wan Azizah said.

Her speech was reproduced in booklets and the part she omitted touched on “lies and rough language” that had been used against her family.

She said the party leaders had similarly received a lot of flak when Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his party Bersatu joined Pakatan Harapan last year.

“Whatever people say now, people have said worse things about us,” said the 65-year-old deputy prime minister.

In her final speech as party president, Dr Wan Azizah highlighted three difficult periods for her, her family and the party.

But when it came to the last period (February 2015 till GE14), she skipped a paragraph.

The omitted paragraph was about how her family was attacked after her husband Anwar Ibrahim was jailed a second time in February 2015.

It read: “Some members had lost their direction, forgotten about their struggles, and lies and rough language became part of their strategy. Terms such as ‘Istana Bukit Segambut’, ‘Family party’ and ‘Anwar’s era is over’ were some of the slander thrown at us”.

In the recent PKR elections, Dr Wan Azizah and Anwar were said to have backed vice-president Rafizi Ramli who challenged incumbent Mohamed Azmin Ali for the deputy president’s post.

After a two-month long battle, Azmin pipped Rafizi to the post while many in “team Azmin” also won seats in the party’s central leadership council.

The only consolation for team Rafizi was Johor Baru MP Akmal Nasir’s clinching of the Youth chief’s post.

Azmin has also extended the olive branch by suggesting that Rafizi be given a post in the party. – November 17, 2018.