The motive of publicising former KeADILan vice-president Marina Yusoff's controversial letter is aimed at nothing but to create rift between Marina and KeADILan, said party vice-president Tian Chua ("[#1] Marina wrote a scathing letter to Chandra[/#] ", June 26).

""I suspect it is part of a larger scheme to undermine Hajjah Marina's credibility and her support within the party. I hope members and supporters of KeADILan would not fall into such a trap," said Chua in a press statement.

Chua stated that the private letter drafted by Marina was released in "a highly suspicious and unusual manner" ("[#2] Marina's letter[/#] ", June 26). A copy of the letter was anonymously delivered to malaysiakini early this week.

"Several conversations between Marina and me confirmed that the private letter was not released by Marina herself nor the intended recipient of the letter (KeADILan deputy president Chandra Muzaffar). The context of the issues raised in the letter was quite unconnected with the current situation now," he said.

Marina wrote the controversial letter on Jan 13, but held back in sending it to Chandra after being advised by her close friends.

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

However, she appended the letter to her resignation letter handed to KeADILan president Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail on May 28.

She informed malaysiakini yesterday that she had mailed a copy of the letter to Chandra last week, accompanied by a two-paragraph covering letter dated June 19.

She also said another set of the letters was hand-delivered to Chandra's office yesterday afternoon.

Chua pointed out that since the party leadership never officially received the letter, those issues mentioned in the letter were never discussed at any of the party meetings.

"There was also no opportunity for anybody to clarify the perceptions carried by the letter. As far as the party is concerned, these opinions may represent the writer's personal view on the problems in the party," Chua said.

He pointed out that it is the party's philosophy that no leader is infallible, and people are free to express their views or make their own judgement.

He stated that all shortcomings of the party is the collective responsibility of the entire leadership, not on any individual, and he believes the strength of the party lies not just with the leaders but the power of the people's movement.

"If the repressive regime hopes to destroy the party by creating perceptions that KeADILan is facing internal squabbles, it must be in a state of hallucination," Chua said.

At the same time, KeADILan Youth chief Mohamad Ezam Mohd Nor denied he had ever sent in resignation letter to the party after the general elections last November, contradicting a claim by Marina that Chua spent some efforts to persuade Ezam to withdraw his resignation.

Marina had stated that, "What is worse is the lies that you (Chandra) have been feeding the Ketua Pemuda (Youth chief) Mohd Ezam (Mohd Nor) about me to the extent that it hurt him so much as to make him resign. It took Tian Chua a lot of efforts to convince him to withdraw his resignation..."

However, Ezam told malaysiakini today that he never had any intention to resign from the party.

When pressed on whether Tian Chua had tried hard to convince him to withdraw "the resignation" as referred to by Marina in the letter, he said, "In certain instances, people advised us to do certain things. No one has threatened anyone to compromise or to resign."

He added that there is no misunderstanding between him and Marina, and said he will seek clarification from her about the "scathing" letter to Chandra.

KeADILan supreme council member Dr. Mohd Nor Nawawi, another figure mentioned in Marina's letter, told malaysiakini that he had only read the news report in New Straits Times , and he needs to read the full letter published by malaysiakini before making any comment.

"At this stage, I am in no position to comment as I do not know the full story," he said.

Meanwhile, KeADIlan Wanita chief Fuziah Salleh, who Marina claimed was initially sent to contest the Hulu Langat seat last November but was transferred to stand in Kuantan at the last minute, told malaysiakini that she would give her comments on the matter at a later date.

Party leader Azizah and her deputy Chandra, both of whom are currently overseas, cannot be reached for their comments.