A vice-president of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), Mr Tian Chua, was jeered yesterday when he slammed party members for being "apple polishers" who risked becoming "extreme and obsessed" about making their president Anwar Ibrahim the next prime minister of Malaysia.
Mr Chua, who is aligned to the rival Azmin Ali faction in PKR, defended the supporters of the deputy president who boycotted yesterday's closing ceremony of the party's national congress.
The increasingly bitter feud between Datuk Seri Anwar and Datuk Seri Azmin is closely watched in Malaysia as PKR has the largest number of MPs in Parliament, 50.
Mr Chua, in his speech at the closing ceremony, criticised attending delegates holding banners proclaiming Mr Anwar as the eighth prime minister, and said he did not need to do so to prove his loyalty to the leader.
"It is not about the eighth PM, ninth PM or 10th PM. We will see our supporters being more extreme and obsessed. That is the danger," Mr Chua said. "It is not about Anwar. After Anwar, there will be other prime ministers and other presidents."
Warning that the party was turning into a cult, he said: "If you want to make this party into a party that supports its president absolutely without question, I think it is up to the wisdom of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to save us from this crisis.
"We want to avoid this party from becoming a party that has no aim and only has one mission, which is to put their leader in power," he said.
Mr Chua, who is one of the three elected PKR vice-presidents, defended those aligned to Mr Azmin, saying they were not "traitors", amid loud boos from delegates.
He reminded them not to forget the reformists like vice-president Zuraida Kamaruddin, a staunch ally of Mr Azmin, and noted that the party would not have won last year's general election without Mr Azmin leading Selangor as menteri besar.
PKR's four-day annual congress that started on Thursday has been racked by violence, walkouts and verbal attacks against the other side. The two factions cobbled together a fragile last-minute peace deal on Wednesday but that failed to last beyond two days.
The Youth wing meeting on Friday saw bloody brawls between the two factions, including one that spilled onto the street outside the meeting venue at the Melaka International Trade Centre.
On Saturday, during the main congress, Mr Azmin and his camp staged a mass walkout that left the hall more than half empty.
Mr Chua was the only top leader aligned to Mr Azmin to turn up yesterday to speak at the winding-up of the congress. Vice-president Zuraida and Women's wing chief Haniza Talha were also no-shows. Women's wing vice-chief Sangeetha Jayakumar, also allied to Mr Azmin, represented the wing, and was booed too when she extolled the virtues of leaders from both camps.
Mr Anwar, in his closing speech, defended Mr Chua, saying he was a negotiator. Mr Anwar also said that he was patient and tolerated the walkout by Mr Azmin and his allies on Saturday during delegates' debates.
Mr Azmin and his allies had accused Mr Anwar of insinuating that Mr Azmin was a "traitor" in his policy speech on Saturday, thus breaking the terms of a truce brokered on Wednesday ahead of the congress.
Mr Azmin said one of the promises made was that there would be no attacks or slurs made against him by delegates during the congress. Mr Azmin has since reminded people of his contributions to the party with an online tweet on Saturday which read "...because of this traitor, this party was built over 20 years".
Mr Anwar told a news conference yesterday that he could not help it if delegates criticised Mr Azmin for walking out of the congress.
"He (Azmin) said we must ensure delegates will not use the forum to attack, but if they say they want leaders to observe discipline, how do I control that? I merely want delegates to avoid casting aspersions or personal attacks, which 90 per cent have avoided except when they walked out, then you have lost control," said Mr Anwar.
