No candidate to replace Anwar yet, says PAS

By Clara Chooi

August 04, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 — PAS was forced today to allay concerns that its leaders have been courting Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, declaring that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) does not have any leader in mind as yet to replace Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as opposition leader.

The party summoned a special press conference to clarify the issue at its headquarters here where secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali told reporters that he had checked with all leaders concerned and confirmed that the rumours were wrong.

He said that in the first place, such a matter would have to be discussed at the PR leadership level and not at any party level.

“We (PR) have never discussed who should take over (Anwar). We have not arrived at that bridge yet. Not yet. So the issue does no arise at all,” he said, when asked if PR has any candidates in mind as Anwar’s replacement.

Mustafa pointed out that Anwar’s sodomy trial was ongoing and a decision was unlikely to be reached before the next general election.

PAS has been at the centre of the controversy, first raised by Bayan Baru MP Datuk Seri Zahrain Hashim through the media.

According to Zahrain, an independent MP who was formerly from PKR, PAS spiritual adviser Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat had met the Kelantan prince, popularly referred to as “Ku Li”, to discuss the issue.

Nik Aziz denied the accusation last night and likened Zahrain to “trash where insects nest”.

“I have checked with all and there was no meeting between Tok Guru (Nik Aziz) and Ku Li. It never happened.

“It has never been discussed by PR, too. And now, Nik Aziz has also denied it. So where did they get this from? Zahrain?” Mustafa said today, smiling.

Asked to comment on a disclosure by Wikileaks through the Malaysia Today web portal yesterday that Anwar himself has approached Ku Li to entice him to cross over, Mustafa said the whistleblower site was not always accurate.

“We cannot assume everything they report is true. A lot of issues are not. In any case, we do not deny that any of us have met Ku Li before... I too have met with him but this is not the issue that was raised,” he said.

He added that the Anwar-Ku Li debacle was likely engineered by Umno leaders to distract the public from a revolt rising from among its own members.

Reponding to the Wikileaks expose yesterday, Anwar admitted to having met Ku Li “before” and “after” his failed September 16, 2008 takeover bid, but denied enticing the Kelantan prince to defect to PR.