Having stirred feathers over a seemingly overt compliment he paid on his boss, PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, PKR deputy president Azmin Ali now says it had been taken out of context.

Instead, he said, his statement praising Anwar ( left ) as a “great leader...willing to parachute to Kajang to help the Selangor government” was not to say that Anwar was downgrading his status.

“I never said it in such a context, the facts were spun by some media,” he was quoted by The Star as saying.

Last week, Azmin created a stir by heaping mountains of praises on Anwar, including saying that the people of Kajang should be “ grateful ” that the world leader is “descending” to their constituency to contest there.

"We have known that Anwar is a world leader. He not only belongs to the people in Kajang, Selangor and Malaysia, but Islamic countries in the Middle East also need his leadership, while developing and developed countries see Anwar as able to bring changes to this country."

“He’s a great leader, he’s not a common politician, but a statesman who’s willing to parachute to Kajang to help the Selangor government,” he had said during a briefing for the PKR by-election machinery.

The Kajang by-election, which must be called in six months, was triggered when PKR's representative Lee Chin Cheh ( right ) vacated his seat.

PKR has admitted that it was a tactical move, purportedly to strengthen Pakatan Rakyat's hold on the state and the Selangor government, in preparation of Umno's anticipated assault to win back the state.

The move has been chided by critics including coalition for electoral reform Bersih , who said that PKR had betrayed the mandate of the people of Kajang in order for it's own agenda.

However, Umno old-timer Abdullah Ahmad in his column in Sinar Harian said the move is merely to “detract from the more important things the government is doing” and from Anwar's personal problems.

Nevertheless, the move, which he believes will only bring Pakatan short-term gain, had caught Umno and the Najib Abdul Razak administration “off-guard”.

“Once again, Putrajaya and Menara Dato Onn (Umno headquarters) were caught off guard—continuously trapped in Anwar's political ploy.

“Cleverness should be met with cleverness, ploys by ploys. Don't just react to situations!” said Abdullah, who had served as press secretary to Malaysia’s second prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein, who is Najib's father.