Christmas came early for PN, Wan Faysal amidst Liberal International fiasco - Khairy

SHAH ALAM - It's an early Christmas gift for Perikatan Nasional as the unity government finds itself being linked to Liberal International (LI) which stands in solidarity with Israel.

The opposition party had been using the issue to bash the government, with former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin calling the responses by the government a public relations (PR) disaster which could have been resolved in a day.

“This PR issue is a complete mess; it's like an early Christmas gift for Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Youth chief Wan Ahmad Fayhsal.

“They (opposition) were struggling in Parliament, not knowing what to talk about,” he said during an episode of the Keluar Sekejap podcast.

Khairy said when the LI issue surfaced, the opposition used it to criticise the government multiple times.

To this, former Umno information chief Shahril Sufian Hamdan said that Gerakan was also listed on the LI’s website, which PKR could use as a point to say that both sides were on the list so it should not be an issue.

Khairy however pointed out that Gerakan was a non-entity, and went on to say that what made it worse was that it's not just a few parties from LI supported Israel, the Zionist regime, but there were also some statements from LI supporting the lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT) movement and others.

“So, it becomes a compounding problem for the government. Instead of discussing the budget, which Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ibrahim Anwar talked about a few days ago, the last three to four days have been spent chasing their tails on this issue.

“What the government or PKR should have done on the first day was to say ‘Yes, we were part of LI as an observer but because of their stance we will exit from LI’ end of story and it would have faced criticism for one or two days, but that's it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Shahril pointed out that people would have respected the government if they owned who they were.

“PKR should have easily responded with ‘We are part of LI and by the way, PN is also an LI party so it's a non-issue,” he said.

Besides, he added that if they had responded like that, it would have been over.

“When you give inconsistent stories and can't provide a clear narrative, that's when PR mistakes like this happen.

“At least people would respect you for owning up to who you are,” he said.

LI is a worldwide organisation of liberal political parties that was founded in Oxford in 1947, with the aim to strengthen liberalism around the world. It was made up of 111 parties and organisations.

The issue surfaced when PKR was listed as an ‘observer member party’ on LI, along with Perikatan Nasional’s component Gerakan.

PKR information chief Fahmi Fadzil had since dismissed claims that linked PKR with the organisation and considered to take legal action against those who linked the two entities.

He also said that PKR had sought to remove the party’s name and logo from LI’s website.

On top of that, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim also said that PKR was never a member of LI.

Meanwhile, Gerakan had admitted that the party was a member of LI but condemned the organisation's support for Israel.