DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua confirmed the matter, saying the issue never arose among PR’s top leaders.
“Absolutely not. There has never been any discussion of the sort during top-level leadership meetings.
“There has never been any doubt or question as to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s position as opposition leader; there is no reason to [replace him],” he told The Malaysian Insider.
PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu echoed his PR colleague’s stand, and said the PAS leadership had not discussed the matter — despite PAS ulama chief Datuk Harun Taib saying that all PR parties would first examine Tengku Razaleigh’s performance as a leader before accepting him.
According to a news report by Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia today, Harun said it is not impossible for Tengku Razaleigh to replace Anwar as the opposition leader.
“We will examine his (Tengku Razaleigh’s) performance first. If he has many followers or the majority support within the opposition parties, most probably he would be the opposition leader.
“The same goes for Anwar; he can negotiate and if he cannot get the majority support, maybe he would not be sitting there anymore,” Utusan quoted Harun as saying.
“He (Anwar) won’t be the opposition leader forever. If someone else enjoys the majority support of the opposition, that person would be the chief,” he added.
But Mohamad told The Malaysian Insider that the PAS leadership council meetings have so far only focused on current issues such as the Bersih 2.0 election reform movement and election strategies.
“Nothing has been discussed [on replacing Anwar], there is nothing,” the PAS leader said.
Bayan Baru MP Datuk Seri Zahrain Mohd Hashim first set the rumour mill spinning, when he penned a blog post claiming that PR leaders had met Tengku Razaleigh to convince him to head the opposition coalition should Anwar be jailed for sodomy.
Utusan further propagated the rumour with an editorial today, saying that Anwar had become a liability for PR, and had many “moral issues.”
Anwar is currently facing sodomy charges for the second time in his life. He was charged with sodomy and corruption in 1998 after he was sacked from the Cabinet, and was later convicted and jailed for both offences.
He was freed in September 2004 and later resurrected his political career by winning back his Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat in a by-election in 2008, which had been held in the interim by his wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
He later led the loose pact of PKR, the DAP and PAS to a historic sweep of five states and 82 parliamentary seats in Election 2008.
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