The internal problems between Pakatan Rakyat parties need to be resolved now or they will continue to plague the coalition in the next general election, said PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli.

In a report by Sinar Harian ’s online edition today, he said the turmoil between PAS and the two other parties PKR and DAP existed even before the Kajang Move in January.

This issue needs to be resolved or mitigated years before the next general election, he said, so that the coalition can bring its focus back to the people’s problems.

“However if we don’t resolve our differences earlier, it can drag on until the eve of the next general election and become a major liability to Pakatan.

“Because by then, the people’s sentiments are on the issues of the day (instead of years ago),” he told the Malay-language daily.

As the party’s strategy director, Rafizi ( right ) had been the main architect of the Kajang Move, which was meant to replace the then-Selangor menteri besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim with the PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Instead, Anwar was disqualified after he was convicted of sodomy while PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who was meant to replace him, was not selected by the palace despite majority support from Selangor assemblypersons.

PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali was sworn in on Tuesday to be the new menteri besar instead.

Rafizi said before the Kajang Move, some within Pakatan were already uncomfortable with PAS because it allegedly failed to keep to agreements made between the parties, including those that resulted in three-corner fights between PKR and PAS in some constituencies during the 13th general election last year.

“Therefore, there had been issues testing us in terms of conformity to the decisions made at the Pakatan level even before that (Kajang Move).

"Some people think that the Kajang Move had brought the disagreements into the public limelight,” he reportedly told the daily.

He opined that these disagreements should be brought into the open including to the rakyat, if there is to be any hope for resolution.

"We cannot hide pretend that the problem will go away on its own. It is better to know it then resolve it because only when it is known, can a solution be found.

"If kept hidden, it may repeat in the future," he said.

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