KUCHING, Nov 17: PKR Betong chief Vernon Kedit questioned the party’s deputy president candidate Rafizi Ramli on the latter’s intention of singling him out in a recently released statement over the recent party election in Sarawak.
Vernon said Rafizi was applying double standards to Vernon’s case for having lodged two reports to Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), while ignoring his own camp for doing the same.
“I am very amused that someone of Rafizi’s stature and seniority in the party would single me out from the thousands of supporters of (PKR deputy president) Datuk Seri Azmin Ali and cast aspersions on my character just because I made two reports to the MACC,” he said in a statement.
Vernon was responding to a recent statement by Rafizi who said that if he were to insist on a Julau re-election and won, it could prompt Vernon to lodge a report with ROS, resulting in PKR being dragged to court.
“Is this not the same Rafizi Ramli who exposed the NFC (National Feedlot Corporation) scandal? Is this not the same Rafizi Ramli who went to town on the 1MDB issue? Is this not the same Rafizi Ramli who fought corruption and abuse of power all these years?
“Then why is he singling me out for doing exactly the same? Just because it allegedly happened within certain quarters of the party does not mean we are to turn a blind eye,” he continued.
Vernon said it was regrettable that Rafizi chose to ignore that people aligned to him had also made reports to the MACC well before his statutory declaration and first report.
“It is equally regrettable that he chooses to ignore that a certain election coordinator of a certain state aligned to him was caught by the MACC for graft in this party election.”
The Betong PKR chief also questioned Rafizi’s statement that Azmin had only won the party’s No 2 post by a 2 per cent margin.
“What is he trying to get at? Two per cent may seem very slight but Rafizi, being an auditor, would know that when we translate 2 per cent into actual numbers, we are looking at thousands of votes. Not just two votes.
“Alas, does he take the public for fools? How can he dispute and question the legitimate right of thousands of party members who chose Azmin over him?”
Vernon said he could also question the legitimacy of 13,000 new members registered after the closing date of registration. The numbers could become the deciding factor in PKR’s leadership race. — DayakDaily
