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SHAH ALAM: Outgoing PKR Youth chief Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad says Malaysia could consider looking into ratifying the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) as long as the Federal Constitution is preserved.
“If we can protect our Constitution while we sign ICERD, I don’t have a problem with it,” he said, adding that Malaysia must look holistically at all the international treaties it wished to sign.
“There are certain international treaties – not just ICERD but other treaties, such as the ones on sexuality – that may be sensitive and may not be appropriate for Malaysia.
“But there are (treaties on) fundamental things. We say we want to help the Rohingya, but we don’t even sign the (treaties on) fundamental things,” he told a press conference at the PKR Youth congress on Friday (Nov 16).
On another matter, Nik Nazmi said it was a tradition for the incumbent deputy president to officiate the party’s Youth and Women’s congress.
He said this in reply to a question on vice president Rafizi Ramli’s absence at Thursday night’s joint meeting between the party’s wings, which was opened by incumbent deputy president Datuk Seri Azmin Ali, his rival for the deputy president post.
“Sometimes the vice presidents would attend (the joint meeting), sometimes they don’t, but not all of them would attend – that is normal.
“You wouldn’t ask why (PKR incoming president) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim didn’t attend or why (PKR outgoing president) Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail didn’t attend,” he said.
Nik Nazmi said the disagreements in the party showed that PKR was different from Umno that had a “Yes boss” culture.
On talk of Umno Youth members trying to join PKR Youth, he said he was open to accepting members from different backgrounds as long as they believed in the principles of the party.
“If you truly believe in the principles of PKR, whatever your past, we don’t mind,” he said.
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