Top Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) leaders would neither confirm nor deny today that their party's secretary-general Abdul Rahman Othman has quit the party.

Its president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said the party will make an announcement on the matter on Monday.

She said there are some "internal party matters which have to be sorted out" before they address the question of whether differences among senior party leaders have resulted in the resignation of the party's number three.

Wan Azizah was asked to respond to a Malay Mail report today, which quoted a source as saying that Abdul Rahman had left the party due to differences with deputy president Syed Husin Ali over the Black 14 demonstration in front of the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) in Kuala Lumpur on April 17.

The protest, a yearly affair since the conviction of former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's on April 14, 1999, was initially called off by Barisan Alternatif organisers.

However, a last minute change of heart prompted plans to proceed but the gathering was stopped short when city police swooped in and arrested 15 reformasi leaders.

Malay Mail

also reported that Abdul Rahman was believed to be unhappy that discussions of a meeting among top leaders was reported by Suara PRM , the party organ of Parti Rakyat Malaysia, helmed by Syed Husin

Wan Azizah said Abdul Rahman would be making a "clarification" to the report himself on Monday.

"Let us wait for that, since it involves issues within the party," she pleaded.

'Differences' never raised

Meanwhile, Syed Husin expressed surprise over the allegations.

"To my knowledge, there has been no indication by Abdul Rahman that he was going to leave the party. In subsequent meetings, he did not raise any of the so called 'differences' mentioned."

However, Syed Husin admitted that he had spelt out an approach to the Black 14 gathering that was different from Abdul Rahman's, "but I do not expect anyone to quit the party over it."

In any case, he said, decisions regarding the April demonstration at Suhakam are made by a BA committee in charge of road shows and public activities, and definitely not solely decided by him.

Moreover, he said no attempts were made to contact him over the veracity of the source's information. "Why is it that the report pointed me out as the culprit? I'm really surprised."

A trained accountant, Abdul Rahman stood in Putrajaya during March's elections but lost to BN's Tengku Adnan Mansor. He could not be reached for comments today.