Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail stressed today that her party is keen to continue negotiations on seats with the DAP in order to strengthen the opposition.

"We are always open to negotiations. Since DAP suspended the talks, the ball is in their court now," she told malaysiakini when contacted this morning.

Wan Azizah revealed that the Keadilan political bureau meeting last night decided to leave it to the DAP whether they wanted to resume negotiations or not.

Asked whether Keadilan will abide by the two conditions set by DAP to resume talks, Wan Azizah replied: "We always abide by that. We need to investigate the allegations as we are also shocked by it".

'Just a comment'

Last Tuesday, DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock suspended the talks with Keadilan over what he claimed were "persistent leak" of negotiation details and "negative and unwarranted" criticisms made by Keadilan leaders against the DAP in the press.

He also sent a letter to Wan Azizah, informing her that DAP is only willing to resume the talks if Keadilan could agree to stop leaking out details and making criticisms.

The DAP was taken aback when Kwong Wah Yit Poh and malaysiakini

recently quoted Keadilan Penang chief Dr Mansor Othman criticising DAP for refusing to let go of any of the Chinese-majority seats in the state.

"Our leaders did not leak out negotiation details, it was just a comment ... DAP leaders had also made such statements (to the press)," Wan Azizah said.

She added that after a check with Mansor, she was informed that Mansor did not make the allegation that DAP was practising "racial politics".

The Keadilan/DAP negotiation process started on March 21. Each party was represented by a three-member negotiation team.

DAP national publicity chief Ronnie Liu, central executive member Teresa Kok and Youth wing secretary Loke Siew Fook represented their party while the Keadilan team comprised vice-president Dr Xavier Jayakumar, supreme council member Khalid Jaafar and deputy Youth chief Low Chee Cheong.

Differences

The two teams had held five meetings but had clashed over differences like the duration of negotiations and whether state leaders should be involved in the negotiation process.

Keadilan has also been vexed by DAP's insistence on keeping its ' traditional seats ', while DAP is upset with Keadilan's eagerness to contest 60 percent of seats in frontline states like Penang, Perak and Selangor.

However, during the second meeting in May, the two teams agreed to abide by a "gag order" on the negotiation details.

Tensions between the two former opposition partners escalated on Tuesday, following Keadilan's announcement in naming two candidates for Petaling Utara and Ipoh Timur parliamentary constituencies, two seats contested by DAP previously.

This irked DAP leaders who slammed Keadilan for being insincere by naming their candidates on one hand and expressing their interest to resume negotiations on the other.