PKR CONGRESS Although the ongoing Selangor crisis had been mentioned several times, the PKR Youth congress in Shah Alam has concluded today without bashing the incumbent menteri besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.

Instead, delegates and the outgoing party leadership urged members to close ranks following the PKR election, the results of which were announced yesterday after six months of campaigning, voting, waiting, and the sometimes violent disruptions.

Both the new Youth chief Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad and his deputy Afif Bahardin also vowed to work with each other during their maiden speeches in their new posts, despite coming from rival factions.

“Once again, I declare that I will give full cooperation to the new PKR Youth leadership, and to Nik Nazmi in his capacity as the PKR Youth chief,” said Afif in concluding his speech. He is the running mate for youth chief candidate Amirudin Shari.

Despite this however, the first crack in the new leadership is already showing, when 16 newly-elected exco members from Amirudin’s AMK Baru faction walked out of the congress venue instead of taking a group photograph with the rest of the new leaders.

This was also before Nik Nazmi and Afif made their maiden speeches. When asked, Nik Nazmi declined to comment and instead urged members to accept the results, saying that the party’s enemies are outside of the party.

However, Afif told Malaysiakini that the 16 exco members walked out because they were dissatisfied with the election results from the Pensiangan division in Sabah, which ultimately cost Amirudin his victory.

In Pensiangan, Amirudin was originally in the lead, but the tide turned in Nik Nazmi’s (left) favour after a re-election at the division.

Afif said it won’t be easy to close ranks in the youth wing, especially since the election results were announced just yesterday and there is still unfinished business. Nevertheless, he remained optimistic.

“I await Nik’s orders to resolve this issue. I accept the central election committee’s results, but moving forward, we need to be more careful and better with our elections to satisfy everyone,” he said.

A week prior to the announcement of the results and before the Pensiangan votes were taken into account, Amirudin had a thin 40-vote lead over Nik Nazmi.

Several youth delegates at the congress, including Penang delegate Kumaresan Arumugam, also complained about the party election.

Kumaresan also suggested several improvements, such as to have a bureaucracy to keep PKR’s members list updated, changing the electoral process, having better-trained election workers, and stricter enforcement of the election rules.

'Sighs of money politics?'

Later in his winding-up speech, outgoing PKR Youth chief and party vice president-elect Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin claimed that he has heard of signs of money politics in the youth wing, and said this needs to be eradicated.

“I heard that there are signs of money politics where in the first round of voting, a group won, but then another group wins,” he said.

When asked to elaborate later, he told Malaysiakini that he was referring to the voting at the Pensiangan division in Sabah, but he has no solid evidence because there are no reports on the issue so far.

“To it seems that here is something fishy,” Shamsul Iskandar said, noting the sudden shift in support.

Earlier in the debates, Pahang delegate and Semambu assemblyperson Lee Chean Chung, who was one of many delegates urging the party to close ranks, even took the extra step of offering free mooncakes to all three contenders for the youth chief post.

“The shape of mooncakes are round, so it symbolises consensus and unity. Ladies and gentlemen, I hereby invite all three youth chief candidates, Nazree Yunos, Nik Nazmi, and Amirudin to come and try these mooncakes as a sign of our party’s unity,” he said during his debate speech.

He also explained that the mooncake symbolised reform, because it had been used by conspirators in Yuan Dynasty China to topple the occupying Mongolian regime.

Another common theme at the at the congress was the need to preserve the cooperation within Pakatan Rakyat, which was mentioned by, among others, Kedah delegate Mohd Ridwan Mohd Razali.

“If three (Pakatan coalition members) minus one, the remainder is not two but zero. If we split up, who wins? PAS loses and we lose. too. We need to be united to strengthen the party,” he said, while expressing hope that the Selangor crisis would be resolved soon.

However, not all is rosy within the coalition, with Perak delegate Mohd Shahanaz Mohd Nazaruddin complaining that PAS members in state had belittled their PKR counterparts after two of its assemblypersons defected to become BN-friendly Independents and helping to set off the Perak Crisis of 2009.

He said the state party leadership was only able to shake off the perception after renewing itself in the 2010 party election, and hopes the situation would not repeat with the Selangor crisis but work out problems together instead.

“In other words, I urge parties in Pakatan Rakyat that when we are in trouble, whatever happens to PKR, don’t treat us like a shuttlecock in the air and smash,” he said, using a badminton analogy.