PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali's campaign to defend his seat has been a muted affair so far, unlike the big events and frequent public statements by his challenger Rafizi Ramli.

Rafizi and his allies have been taking their campaign public, with innuendos suggesting that Azmin would get in the way of PKR president-elect Anwar Ibrahim becoming prime minister.

So far, those aligned to Azmin have mostly kept quiet about Rafizi's campaign strategy. When asked why this was so, PKR vice-president Tian Chua said many of those aligned to Azmin were party veterans and would prefer to let their deeds speak for themselves.

Chua said many of those now aligned to Azmin have been building the party since the reformasi days while many of those who are aligned to Rafizi came in later, particularly after the 2008 elections.

"The party was formed by our generation... We have been building the party, brick by brick, mortar by mortar.

"Azmin and Zuraida Kamaruddin, among others, started to build the entire party. I believe the grassroots will agree with our struggle," Chua said, who is defending his vice-presidency.

Chua said many of those seeking election with Rafizi's camp only joined "mid-way" through PKR's journey.

"They have themselves Reformasi 2.0 or 'reformasi 20 tahun'. But they don't have the history with a 20-year struggle.

"Rafizi said he relied on 300,000 new party members. In other words, they are either new to politics or have an Umno background.

"They are more superficial and just want to see who speaks the most, which may be Rafizi's strategy."

In spite of this, Chua said that he is confident that those aligned to Azmin will still be able to convince the new party members - most of which who joined only after the May 9 elections - to support those with a track record.

Not campaigning?

On why those aligned to Azmin were not actively campaigning, Chua explained that many top party leaders were now members of the executive and are focusing on government business came first.

"We are a ruling party. Apart from the internal party elections, the people are expecting us to work. Our responsibility is to implement the reformasi agenda, regardless of whether we have government positions or not.

"Azmin’s allies, which has been Rafizi's crosshairs, need to handle government matters. We can't abandon all administrative work to defend our party positions and disappoint the people."

Apart from Azmin, who is the economic affairs minister, his lieutenants Zuraida Kamaruddin and Dr A Xavier Jayakumar are also in the cabinet.

In contrast, Rafizi's camp consists of only Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, who is the domestic trade and consumer affairs minister. Saifuddin will not be participating in the election as a candidate.

Vying for the four PKR vice-presidency positions are 12 candidates, including eight from Azmin's and Rafizi's camps.

Azmin's camp is offering Chua, Xavier, Zuraida and Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin while Rafizi's camp is touring Nurul Izzah Anwar, Johari Abdul, William Leong and S Kesavan for the veep positions.

So far, Rafizi has been actively campaigning in Sabah, Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Negeri Sembilan, Malacca and Johor but there is little evidence that those aligned to Azmin are doing the same.