Whether it is a debate or discourse, Pakatan Rakyat is still adamant to have a open exchange of ideas between Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

NONE“Whether you call it debate or discourse, whatever it is, people are clever, they want to see an exchange of ideas,” said PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli (right) at a press conference with his colleagues Dzulkefly Ahmad from PAS and Liew Chin Tong from DAP.

Liew, who is also Bukit Bendera MP, echoed Rafizi’s sentiments and stressed that the event should be televised.

They were responding to Najib’s statement yesterday that would be happy to argue politics with any reasonable person.

“That much I accept. I am happy to argue politics with any reasonable man or woman and appreciate Malaysians’ lively political discourse,” he said in a blog posting.

On the “reasonable man or woman” remark, Rafizi responded that as long as the person is not medically certified as mentally ill, Najib should not dismiss the invitation to debate.

“Let the people judge who is reasonable,” he said.

The trio, who leads Pakatan's policy committee to formulate alternative policies, invited the BN to have more discourses with Pakatan and make the next general election a contest of policies. 

Debate offer still open

In an earlier statement, PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution said Anwar’s invitation to Najib to debate the nation’s current economic status and the content of Pakatan manifesto - Buku Jingga, is still open.

“Unfortunately we have not received any reply from the prime minister regarding the invitation,” he said.

Saifuddin urged the premier to accept it as it is in line with his democratic aspiration announced earlier, unless Najib does not see those issues as important matters to be debated.

Najib should not be worried about his debate opponent being unreasonable and emotional, said Saifuddin, if the premier is confident about the people’s capability to make accurate judgment.

“The decision is in the hands of Najib whether he is sincere to allow Malaysians to see the policies of BN and Pakatan being debated in a democratic framework and make the appropriate choice,” he added.

'Relinquish finance portfolio'

In another issue raised during the press conference today, the police committee of Pakatan also called on Najib to relinquish his finance portfolio.

“This practice clearly gives way for cases of conflict of interests to arise due to the different requirements that the two positions entail.

“In a corporate structure, this is like a person juggling the post of chief executive officer and chief financial officer,” read a statement issued by the committee.

NONEThe committee was responding to an earlier statement from former finance minister Daim Zainuddin (left), who said Najib had too much on his plate to be handling the finance ministry as well.

“Additionally, by having a second finance minister, matters are made more complicated as there are no clear-cut distinctions between the roles of the two ministers.

"At the end of the day, no one is really sure who is in charge of the economy,” the committee said.

Earlier, Anwar had made it clear that should Pakatan take over Putrajaya, he will not assume the dual posts of prime minister and finance minister.