THE sparks have started flying in the PKR election campaigns.

But the sparks are coming largely from the side aligned to Rafizi Ramli whose bid for the deputy president post has taken off with a bang.

The strange thing is that incumbent Datuk Seri Azmin Ali has yet to say a single word about the contest.

He has not tweeted or issued any statement, not even on the day when his aide filed the nomination papers on his behalf amid rumours he might go for the presidency.

The utter silence from Azmin have left many wondering what is going on with him.

His Twitter account has been full of work matters and nothing about the party election.

He kept mum even after Kapar assemblyman Datuk Abdullah Sani Abdul Hamid made an outrageous claim that Azmin is part of a conspiracy involving Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Daim Zainuddin to stop Anwar from becoming prime minister.

Instead, his ally and vice-president Dr Xavier Jayakumar had to step in to rubbish the allegation.

Some think Azmin is sulking, something he is quite well-known for when things do not go his way.

Others say, he is adopting a wait-and-see approach or, as one of his supporters puts it: “He is giving the Rafizi camp a long rope to hang themselves”.

“It’s nothing like that. It’s his character. He expects his work to speak for him. He needs to perform to win over the civil servants and to impress Mahathir and Anwar that he is doing his part to hold the government together,” says vice-president Tian Chua.

Chua says it is absurd to question Azmin’s loyalty to Anwar. He says Azmin has spent 30 years of his life serving Anwar – from his days in the government to now. “How can you say he is not loyal?”

An aide of Azmin says people in the party know what his boss is about and what he has done for the party.

“He does not want to engage in theatrics and low blows. He wants to maintain dignity for the party now that we are the government,” says the aide.

But will a dignified silence win over party members and help Azmin hang on to the No 2 post?

Silence is not always golden in politics and it may be perceived as complicity.

The trouble is that the Rafizi-Azmin contest has quickly boiled down to the question of who is more committed to the goal of Anwar becoming the next prime minister.

Rafizi clearly has the upper hand on that count. Some even see the contest as a proxy fight between Anwar and Dr Mahathir.

Making Anwar the prime minister has become an extremely emotional issue, especially for longtime party members who want to correct the injustice done to Anwar.

To them, it is not only about redemption for Anwar, it is also vindication for the struggle they went through.

They blame the two Tuns for Anwar’s 1998 downfall; it has been drummed into their psyche the last 20 years. The distrust goes very deep and it does not take much for them to believe the conspiracy allegations.

Old feelings die hard and Rafizi has tapped into the undercurrent of suspicion about the two Tuns and dwelt a blow to Azmin’s reputation.

Speculation about Azmin’s ties with the two Tuns have been going on since the formation of the Cabinet when five of the seven minister posts went to his men.

Dr Mahathir’s ambiguity about whether he will go after two years or stay on beyond that has not helped.

Various accounts of the courtesy call that Anwar paid on Dr Mahathir in Putrajaya last week have also convinced some that the elder man will want to extend his stay at the top.

Party insiders say Anwar congratulated Dr Mahathir for his return as Prime Minister, saying that his mission had been done – to topple Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Dr Mahathir’s response was that the people loved him and he still had a lot of work to do.

All this was done with great civility but neither men were fooled by the other’s underlying barbs.

Pakatan Harapan leaders are both amused and concerned about the way outsiders are being dragged into the politics of PKR.

A Pakatan insider says the negative polemic from Rafizi’s side will be damaging even if the party was still in the opposition.

“He is pitching to an internal audience without care to the external perception on the party,” says the insider.

The Prime Minister has denied any role in the PKR polls and sent out a gentle reminder during a Pakatan dinner on Monday night.

The get-together was for the coalition partners to refocus and renew their commitment and it was held at Sheraton Hotel where Dr Mahathir had declared victory after the GE14.

He told the gathering that they were not in the opposition anymore and should stop talking like they were.

He said the opposition could criticise and say what they liked. But they were now in government and they cannot continue to put themselves and their party ahead of the coalition and government.

He made the point several times in different ways and it apparently went down well with his audience. It was sound advice but the PKR election is going to be a long drawn-out battle for the premiership and even the best of advice may fall by the wayside.