Sabah PKR has landed itself in trouble again, this time over a comment by its president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
Barely hours after interim Sabah PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail announced a state revamp and the formation of 12 committees in preparation for the coming general election, she has s been called a “liar”.
Sabah PKR former communication director, Ronnie Klassen, has taken offence to Wan Azizah’s claim that his post was “non-existent” and that he was “self-appointed”.
“Wan Azizah today issued a press statement in the local news media in Sabah saying that the ‘post of communications director of Sabah PKR does not exist, there was no such post and there never was’. She stated that I self-appointed myself to the post.
“Today I am saying Wan Azizah is a liar because in July 2009, I was offered the post, and it took me two weeks to decide on it.
“On Aug 2, 2009, when Azmin Ali (then Sabah PKR chief) called for a press conference in Sandakan in his first state liaison meeting, he announced my appointment as communication director on the advice of de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim; so she lied,” Klassen told reporters here today.
Klassen, who took Wan Azizah to task not only for lying but for her unappreciative attitude, claimed that all this while Wan Azizah, Anwar and almost everyone in PKR leadership realised and acknowledged his role as its communication director in Sabah.
“She even congratulated me after I gave a speech during a meeting with jobless Sabahans, which I and the DAP, organised in Petaling Jaya in April 2010. I was called to the stage as Sabah PKR communication director. Lim Kit Siang was also there.
“I was not under PKR payroll. My key people and myself sacrificed time for this cause.
“So Wan Azizah’s words were a shock to me after 18 months in the post. I served under Azmin and (later) Ahmad Thamrin Jaini as well as under Pajudin Nordin’s brief tenure as state PKR chief,” he said.
Weighing his options
On the insinuation by Wan Azizah that he was not acting for PKR when he lodged a police report against the self-proclaimed Sulu sultan Akjan Muhammad Ali on Feb 11, Klassen said he and Dr Chong Eng Leong did so as responsible Malaysian citizens.
“But by saying I acted on a personal basis, does this mean PKR leadership is agreeing to the proclamation of a Sulu sultan here in Sabah?” he asked.
He also denied that he was a sore loser because, like his close friend Ansari Abdullah (Tuaran chief), he was not part of Wan Azizah’s newly minted 12-member presidential council announced earlier today.
Klassen said he could not understand why after 18 months of hard work, Wan Azizah had decided to brush aside his role as if it never mattered or existed.
“In the 18 months, a lot of functions had been organised by PKR and in some I was invited as a speaker. I was announced as the communication director. Now suddenly she said there was no such post.
“Invitations to PKR press conferences had always been extended by me as the communication director,” he added.
He said he even organised a dialogue with about 150 young professionals with PKR adviser Anwar Ibrahim at the Kinabalu Club in September 2009, soon after he assumed his role.
According to Klassen, he was tasked by the central leadership to open the mind of young people to PKR struggles and he thought he did the best for the party.
But the latest incident has forced him to review his situation.
“I am weighing my option, but I will stick with the opposition side.”
“I’ve managed to accumulate close to 100,000 followers online.
“At any one time there are one million people who could receive any message from me through my Facebook, blog and e-mails,” Klassen claimed.
