KOTA KINABALU: The rift in Sabah PKR widened with party supreme council member Christina Liew abruptly relinquishing her post — less then 12 hours after Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan quit as PKR vice-president.
Liew, who also heads the party’s Kota Kinabalu division, said her resignation was a result of her disappointment with the party leadership.
“I have worked very hard to promote PKR over the past nine years,” she said yesterday.
“Since the party has disregarded my contributions, I will bow out with dignity.”
Liew said she could not understand why she was replaced by Datuk Kong Hong Ming as the PKR liaison deputy chairman. “It was a public humiliation.”
She said she had always believed in fairness and transparency in PKR until Kong’s appointment and more recently the appointment of state secretary Ahmad Thamrin Zaini as state party chief replacing Azmin Ali.
Dr Jeffrey, when announcing his resignation late Tuesday, said he had lost confidence in the party leadership’s decision-making process in matters affecting Sabah.
In Kuala Lumpur, PKR vice-president R. Sivarasa said the party would decide in the next few days whether to accept Jeffrey’s resignation or to ask him to reconsider.
Speaking to reporters at Parlia-ment lobby yesterday, he also denied that Dr Jeffrey had quit the party.
On Liew’s resignation, Sivarasa said the party was still checking the matter.
He also denied there was a split in the state PKR.
“What split? There is no split. Split means a few divisions leaving to join other political parties,” he said.
Meanwhile, Thamrin said Dr Jeffrey’s resignation would not weaken the party.
“I don’t see it as having an impact,” he said. “It is not as if he is quitting the party.”
Thamrin said he had no problems with either Dr Jeffrey or Christina but declined to comment on her resignation saying he was not aware of her decision.
Meanwhile, Sabah Umno secretary Datuk Yahya Hussin said Dr Jeffrey and Christina were welcome to join any of Barisan Nasional component parties.
The Deputy Chief Minister said the two would be an asset to Barisan since they had a sizeable number of supporters.
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