PENANG, 17 April 2009: Penang Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) liaison chairperson Datuk Zahrain Mohamed Hashim has denied any conspiracy or malicious intent to bring down former Penanti assemblyperson Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin.
He said, the move by the former Deputy Chief Minister 1 to relinquish his positions in the state government and state assembly was a personal decision after a discussion with party advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“I don’t know what conspiracy that he meant because so far this thing has never been mentioned and as far as I know no one wants to do bad things or topple him. He took the decision to resign because he wanted to continue study but how come he could say there is a conspiracy against him.
“I don’t understand, moreover I don’t think Anwar wanted to do such a thing to him,” he said when contacted by Bernama here today.
While admitting that it was not easy for Fairus to make the decision to relinquish all posts, he hoped all quarters would not make bad speculations and instead respect the young leader’s decision.
He also stressed that Fairus’ decision and action did not involve the state-level party leadership and was sure that it had nothing to do with a claim that an internal problem existed in the party.
When asked why Fairus seemed to have turned his back to the state leadership and dealt directly with Anwar, he said: “Perhaps he is more comfortable with Anwar, I don’t know.”
He said this when asked to comment on Fairus’ disclosure to a Chinese newspaper a day before announcing his decision to vacate the Penanti state seat that he had been snared by his own party.
According to the report also, Fairus wanted PKR to support and clean his name from various allegations regarding a quarry operation in the state and would expose “internal stories” regarding the operations of the opposition alliance.
On the Penanti by-election, Zahrain said PKR would defend the party’s victory and would work no matter who the candidate would be.
“What important, we want to work and serve the people,” he said. — Bernama
