KUCHING: PBB vice-president Datuk Daud Abdul Rahman said he feared that the party would plunge into disunity by rumours of factions within it.
He said it was unfair to say that factions existed, for instance, between supporters of PBB Youth leader Datuk Fadillah Yusof and party president Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud.
Daud cautioned that such allegations by members could destroy PBB, which is the state’s BN backbone.
“Let us stop this labelling and accusations that there is one faction supporting Datuk Fadillah and another supporting the Chief Minister. Between the two, the YB Chief Minister (Taib) is too high in rank when compared to Fadillah,” the Tupong assemblyman told reporters after a meeting of new BN State Legislative Assembly (DUN) members at PBB headquarters here yesterday.
He made the comment following claims that factions existed in the PBB Youth wing.
Youth leaders were said to be divided when Fadillah was accused of failing to satisfactorily rebuke national BN and Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin for implying that Taib should step down in order to save BN from another political tsunami in the parliamentary election.
Echoing the Umno Youth chief’s sentiment was MCA vice-president Senator Gan Ping Sieu, who is Deputy Youth and Sports minister. Gan had urged Taib to pass the baton to another BN leader as soon as possible.
In addition, Daud, who is also assistant minister in the Chief Minister’s Department (Islamic Affairs), stressed that it was fair for PBB members and top leadership to defend Taib when he is criticised by outsiders who have no direct affiliation with the state’s leadership and politics.
Believing that Fadillah has no malice whatsoever nor would he ever have any intention to disunite the party, he said, “I know Fadillah very well as he was under my political guidance.”
Meanwhile, PBB supreme council member Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah (who is former PBB Youth Chief), who was also at the meeting, denied that there were factions in the Youth wing.
He, however, conceded that the situation could be a normal feud and mere misunderstanding which do not necessarily disrupt party unity.
Karim, who is chief political secretary to the Chief Minister said: “There will always be people who are not satisfied with certain things but to say that the Youth chief (Fadillah) has lost all support from the Youth wing is not true.
“I dare to say that the support for the Youth chief is still strong and I, myself, have no problem pledging my support to Datuk Fadillah,” he stressed.
PBB senior vice-president Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan declined to comment on the matter and advised reporters to ask for a statement from Fadillah personally.
“It is not fair for me to comment on this,” the Second Planning and Resource Management Minister pointed out.
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