Azmin opposed PH formation, insisted on being PM candidate, Nik Nazmi says in new book

KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Seri Azmin Ali had outright opposed the formation of Pakatan Harapan, three years before the coalition led its historic election win in 2018, Setiawangsa MP Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad has revealed in his new book.

Nik Nazmi, who is now PKR vice-president, said in September 2015, the party’s then-president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail had steered a discussion between opposition parties and civil society to form PH, but some quarters felt that winning federal power was so remote that focus should be on retaining Selangor, which was then led by Azmin, who was then the state’s menteri besar.

Nik Nazmi said that those within PKR who opposed the formation of PH believed that retaining Selangor in the opposition’s hands could only happen by maintaining political cooperation in PAS.

However, Nik Nazmi said his faction had felt that the opposition was not at risk of losing Selangor to BN, and that it could focus on taking Putrajaya.

“Within PKR, debate over the direction we should take heated up. 

“Two weeks after the launch of PH, almost half of the PKR Central Leadership Council that were aligned to deputy president Azmin Ali called for a meeting to review the formation of PH,” Nik Nazmi said.

“They argued that the president was only mandated to discuss, but not launch a new coalition.”

The 40-year-old Nik Nazmi said this in his latest book, Malaysian Son: a progressive’s political journey in the heart of Southeast Asia, a mid-career memoir published by Penguin Books.

The book, which was released on August 19, is available in selected bookstores such as Kinokuniya and e-commerce sites, including Amazon.

In the book, Nik Nazmi said Dr Wan Azizah had ended the meeting asking for the council to give her the mandate to form an alliance with other opposition parties.

“(Dr) Wan Azizah showed her steel and resolve that people often underestimated,” Nik Nazmi, who was formerly an exco when Azmin led Selangor, said.

Speaking to The Vibes about the contents of the book, Nik Nazmi said Azmin was among a large group of people who did not believe PH could win the 14th general election.

“We had Pakatan Rakyat before (PH), which was PAS, DAP and PKR. 

“When Pakatan Rakyat collapsed, the (Selangor) government was still able to continue (as an administration), as long as the three parties agreed to work together...but Azmin was very worried about losing PAS,” Nik Nazmi said of the leader, who played a pivotal role in the infamous Sheraton Move leading to the fall of the PH government in 2020.

“For Azmin, he did not think that we would win Putrajaya, and the only way he can remain as Selangor MB is through an understanding with PAS.”

‘Azmin wanted to be PM’

In the book, Nik Nazmi recounted PH holding its convention in January 2018, where it was announced that 92-year-old Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the coalition’s candidate to become the seventh PM of Malaysia, while Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who was in prison at the time, was Dr Mahathir’s successor.

He said the convention saw PH’s leaders pledging for the release of Anwar and playing an active role in government before replacing Dr Mahathir, if the coalition won the polls.

The convention also agreed that Dr Wan Azizah would be deputy prime minister, and that Bersatu, the coalition’s newest partner, would get the lion’s share of seats contested.

“But the convention faced various dramas, the main one being a group of PKR delegates loyal to Azmin Ali walking out of the convention upon the announcement that (Dr) Mahathir would be our PM candidate,” Nik Nazmi said.

“They demanded that Azmin should be PH’s candidate for either the PM or the DPM role.”

Nik Nazmi, who was PKR’s youth chief at the time, had chaired a meeting with the wing not long before the convention, where a straw poll that was conducted saw Dr Mahathir come first, while Azmin trailed far behind.

“However, members of the Azmin faction who were there took a photo of the poll to claim that (Dr) Mahathir and Azmin were the PH Youth’s top two candidates for PM.”

Asked whether he believed Azmin was “entitled” to demand a top government post as he was PKR’s number two leader, Nik Nazmi replied in the negative.

“No one should be entitled to posts in that sense, but the other problem with Azmin was that he wasn’t even a believer in the Pakatan Harapan cause in the first place,” Nik Nazmi said.

“So you can’t turn around and say, ‘Now I want to be prime minister or deputy prime minister in PH’.

“He was putting all sorts of blocks in place, and there’s nothing wrong in revealing this, because I’ve mentioned this before and recorded it in the book…The convention was organised in a hall owned by the state’s government-linked company, but he made it so difficult for us to organise the convention.”

“I think there was no confidence of trust with Azmin, not only from the non-Azmin faction in PKR but also with the PH partners that he would honour, being such a sceptic of PH.

“So to put him either as number one or number two candidate for the country coming from PH, I think it would have been unworkable.” – The Vibes, August 30, 2022