Malaysia prime minister-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim has backtracked on an admission about the presence of saboteurs within his own political party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), the largest member of the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition.

According to The Malay Mail, the denial was made at a press conference on Jan. 4 with the top leadership of PH.

As for his admission, it had been made to Financial Times (FT) in an interview.

FT reported Anwar as saying that there were "pockets, people who for their own reasons would like to sabotage these arrangements" on succeeding the position of current Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Anwar had also added, "I can’t deny, some people in the ruling coalition [have] a different agenda."

Anwar subsequently denied his remarks on Jan. 4 by downplaying the presence of saboteurs to "some elements who may not agree".

Anti-Anwar faction supposedly led by the economic affairs minister

FT reported that the anti-Anwar element within the PKR was led by the Malaysian economic affairs minister, Azmin Ali.

Peter Mumford, the Asia director at the Eurasia Group was quoted by FT as saying:

"“Azmin’s people... may slow, or add uncertainty to, Anwar’s accession to the premiership in the hope this buys Azmin time to position himself as Mahathir’s successor instead."

Indeed, the New Straits Times (NST) also reported on Jan. 2 that Azmin had disapproved of several key appointments in the PKR’s leadership line-up as announced by Anwar.

NST had quoted Geostrategist Associate Professor Azmi Hassan of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia as stating that Azmin's disapproval was likely due to how he felt the appointments disadvantaged him.

Azmi added that some of the appointments spelled "a clear threat to Azmin’s future" not just within PKR, but also in the Malaysian government.

As such, Azmin's objection is a sign that he is not hesitant in rocking "the PKR boat".

Azmi further stated that Anwar had to be careful as well as his succession of Mahathir was "dependent on Azmin’s and PKR’s stance... whether or not the party will give him the full backing."

Anwar stresses agreement with PH and Mahathir

The Malay Mail reported that Anwar's denial had been in response to a question on Jan. 4, on whether FT had accurately reported Anwar of accusing elements within the ruling coalition of sabotaging the transition of power.

To this, Anwar gave the reply, "No, I did not say that".

Instead, Anwar stressed the key issues were that "Pakatan Harapan agreed and I and Tun Mahathir have agreed".

In his downplaying of the saboteurs to disagreement, Anwar also added, "It's a democratic process."

Previously, on Jan. 2, Anwar had announced in a tweet that he had met with Mahathir.

Apart from agreeing with Mahathir on the “same strategy” regarding Singapore, Anwar also added that Mahathir had the full backing of the Pakatan Harapan coalition to continue leading the country for the “agreed-upon” duration.

Top image from Anwar Ibrahim Facebook