The resignation of Marina Yusoff as KeADILan vice-president early this month stemmed from deep differences with deputy president Dr Chandra Muzaffar that go back for more than half a year.

The spat between the two key party leaders reached a point where it was either Marina or Chandra who had to resign - which resulted in Chandra expressing a wish to quit soon after the November general elections.

Marina told malaysiakini today that since Chandra's offer to resign was not accepted by KeADILan leadership, she felt she had no choice but to quit. However, she was persuaded by her supporters to stay on.

But she said that the situation remain unchanged in the past few months and she eventually throw in the resignation letter on May 18, which became effective after the Teluk Kemang by-election.

Together with the resignation letter which was handed to KeADILan president Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was appended a scathing letter written to Dr. Chandra by Marina dated Jan 13, which Marina held back for several months after discussions with some of her close friends.

A copy of the Jan 13 letter was received anonymously by malaysiakini . [See [#1] Marina's letter[/#] ]

When contacted today, Marina confirmed she had indeed written the letter addressed originally to Chandra, one of the founders of KeADILan with Marina.

The letter began thus: "It is with great regret that I have to write to you. The situation has got so bad and the future of the party is at stake and the chances of getting Datuk Sri Anwar Ibrahim out of prison is getting slimmer by the day.

"The main reason being that there is too much time wasted by those jostling for power and undermining each other. At this stage we should be concentrating on common objectives," wrote by Marina, who had quit from Umno twice and also from splinter group Semangat 46.

"I am very much aware of the mud slinging that you have been throwing at me and trying to make me a scapegoat for the failure in the general elections," said Marina.

The letter went on to describe in detail her gripes against Chandra, spelling out specific incidents in which she accused the party No. 2 for being insensitive.

She wrote that Chandra, on the eve of Nomination Day in the last general elections, drove Azizah to tears with his "incessant scolding".

"You have not given her the dignity and respect she deserves," she added.

In addition, she wrote that Chandra drove KeADILan Youth chief Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor to the point of handing his resignation and that vice-president Tian Chua took some efforts in convincing him to withdraw his resignation.

"Saya tak sampai hati (I did not have the heart)," she told malaysiakini today on why she did not hand in the letter to Chandra after having written it. "I did not want to create any kind of "huru-hara" (uproar) in the party."

Marina said that she attached her Jan 13 letter to her resignation note to help explain to Azizah on her reasons for her action.

"I have left the party, I don't want to create any problems," she added. "But what I have written in the letter are what had actually taken place."

According to her, Chandra is unable to lead the party to greater heights.

"He does not understand the way to manage a party, he has no experience. He runs it like an NGO. All of my views were ignored," Marina told malaysiakini .

However, Marina stressed that no one had forced her to resign, and she made her own decision to quit the party.