Amanah denies Husam quit party, says stepped down from post to focus on winning seats in Kelantan

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — Parti Amanah Negara has denied that Datuk Husam Musa has quit the party in protest against president Mohamad Sabu, but confirmed that he stepped down from his post of party vice-president on September 6.

In a statement, its communications director Khalid Samad said the move was taken for Husam to focus on the party’s move to win seats in Kelantan in the next election, especially in Kota Baru.

“This resignation application was to enable him to focus on winning seats for Amanah in Kelantan, especially in the Kota Baru parliamentary constituency where he leads.

“As his abilities and capabilities are still needed at the national level, Amanah National Committee has decided to ask him to monitor and act as an adviser to the three Amanah bureaus in preparation for the 15th general election,” said the statement.

Khalid also labelled any news reports attributing Husam’s resignation to internal issues between him and Amanah’s president, Mohamad Sabu and other leaders as “baseless”.

Husam, who is also Kelantan Pakatan Harapan (PH) chief, will be advising these bureaus in Amanah: Elections, communications and strategy.

“Papework regarding his new roles is being prepared for his approval," Khalid said, referring to Husam.

Earlier, Husam has reportedly denied quitting Amanah and PH as reported by The Malaysian Insight, which cited anonymous sources claiming the resignation letter was sent to the Amanah leadership two weeks ago.

According to the report, Husam did not like Mohamad’s purported indecision regarding Amanah’s support for Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

One source was quoted saying Mohamad — better known as Mat Sabu — constantly wavered in supporting Dr Mahathir one moment, and then swinging back to Anwar the next.

The Dr Mahathir-Anwar conflict over PH’s choice of prime ministership had previously put their allies in Amanah and DAP in a quandary, however, the latter two parties subsequently decided to throw their weight behind the PKR president.

The Malaysian Insight reported another unnamed source claiming that Husam was dissatisfied with Mohamad’s tendency to make decisions without consulting other Amanah leaders, preferring instead to lean on DAP.