AFTER weeks of sniping, it wasn’t easy to get Anwar Ibrahim and Mohamed Azmin Ali in the same room.

With just days away before Anwar’s first PKR congress as president, a temporary truce was needed for the meeting to proceed without any more drama.

And although the sacking of Zakaria Abdul Hamid and Ismail Dulhadi resulted in rumours of a second assembly, the issue was set aside when Azmin was allowed to officiate the youth congress.

According to one federal lawmaker who attended the political bureau meeting in Parliament on Wednesday night, Azmin made the first move by sending two emissaries.

“Azmin knew he didn’t have enough support to go up against the president and he sent Tian Chua and R. Sivarasa to see Anwar,” the source told The Malaysian Insight.

“We had, by yesterday, registered more than 80% of the delegates for the PKR congress in Malacca. There was no way a parallel congress would have the legitimacy and support it needed to bother Anwar.”

Another source confirmed that Chua and Sivarasa were sent to meet their president ahead of Azmin.

“The first thing they did was to apologise for not sending out Azmin’s statement distancing himself from the memorandum asking Anwar to apologise for the decision to sack Zakaria Abdul Hamid,” said the PKR leader.

Up until then, most of those who signed the memorandum pulled back on the point calling on Anwar to apologise for Zakaria’s sacking.

Zakaria and another Pahang member Ismail were sacked over alleged corruption.

With the apology out of the way, the two then asked Anwar what was needed in order for Azmin to officiate the youth congress.

According to the MP, Anwar said Azmin must attend the congress in Malacca and not use it as an opportunity to attack the 72-year-old.

In exchange, Azmin would be allowed to officiate the youth congress and do his winding-up speech on Sunday.

“They agreed and added if team Azmin could have a say in the list of delegates who will be speaking at the congress.

“But Anwar said no as PKR is a democratic party and it is up to the delegates to say what they wished.”

With that, the two exited before Azmin came in, said the source.

The MP said that although Zakaria and Ismail’s sacking prompted the memorandum against Anwar, their issue was not raised at all.

At last night’s opening of the youth and wanita wings’ assembly, Azmin kept to his end of the bargain by staying clear of the recent events. – December 6, 2019.