PKR today officially bid farewell to several party stalwarts who have recently left the party and thanked them for their past contributions.

"To those who have left, we say selamat jalan (safe journey) and hope they find what they are seeking," PKR deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali told a press conference today.

Former party youth wing chief Ezam Mohd Noor was among the latest high profile party leader to have resigned from the party. Former PKR deputy president Abdul Rahman Othman and businessman KS Nallakarupan had also quit.

Ezam, 40, cited differences with party vice-president Azmin Ali and PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim as the reasons for quitting the party on April 9.

He alleged that Anwar was a "weak dictator" and was being allegedly "controlled" by Azmin. In one instance, Ezam claimed Azmin was behind the move to stop Anwar from contesting for the party top post during the party congress last month.

On Ezam's allegations, Syed Husin said the onus was on Ezam to prove them.

"We are not very concerned about what Ezam said. There are many things he said that are not true. We are faced with bigger issues in the country (than Ezam's decision to quit the party).

"People come and go, leaders come and go, but the party moves on. We want to solve the bigger problems faced by the people," he added.

Posers on Ezam

In response to these questions from the media, Syed Husin said:

Q: Surely there has to be some effect on the party with leaders leaving the party

A: Nothing... as far as we are concerned, he has left the party for six months already. He has been inactive and we move on.

And yet at the party congress, Anwar thanked Ezam for his contributions...

We appreciate his past contributions. Not just him. There are many others who have left the party. We appreciate them to... but after that, if they decide to go their separate ways, god bless them.

Can PKR accept it if PAS take in Ezam?

I think they (PAS) would be discussing (the matter) with us... he hasn't stated that he would join PAS.

It has been said that Ezam is drawing more and more PKR Youth members away from the party...

We shall see in due time. Let him prove himself. You (journalists) talk about the few who left, but you do not talk about the hundreds that came in. You talk about the few problems in the party, but you do not talk about the thousands in the party who support the leadership.

Ezam is not just a party member, he was very instrumental in setting up PKR...

No one person is extremely instrumental (in the party), not even in the top leadership.

Seat negotiations

Syed Husin was also asked to respond to claims by Nallakarupan that he had brought thousands of party members out of the party.

He replied that Nallakarupan took 2,000 membership forms from the party, but out of which, only 136 members were recorded from the lot.

PKR secretary-general Khalid Ibrahim who was also present confirmed that seat negotiations for the general election with DAP and Barisan Alternatif ally PAS was ongoing, but was tightlipped on the details.

To a question, he said a common election manifesto was secondary in the present seat negotiation process.

"The matter was not thoroughly discussed because our priority was on the seat allocation," Khalid said.