Arshad reminded the ruling party that it was elected into office and voters have a legitimate expectation that its representatives will do their job. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — PKR should clean up its act and focus on national matters instead of allowing its “disgustful” public display of internal politics over sex videos to continue, the National Patriots Association (Patriot) said today.

Its president Brigadier-General (Retired) Datuk Mohamed Arshad Raji reminded the Pakatan Harapan (PH) party that it was the biggest component in the government and that its ongoing infighting is bad for the country, which should be preparing to weather worse economic conditions in light of the prolonged US-China trade tensions.

“The current factional fight within PKR, which is the largest party in the PH coalition, does not augur well for our country,” he said in a statement.

He said continued infighting could “rip the coalition apart, sending the current course of institutional reforms and efforts to stabilise our economy into [a] tailspin”.

“The PKR leadership has to get its acts right and not allow public display of its disgustful [sic] internal politicking.

He reminded the ruling party that it was elected into office and voters have a legitimate expectation that its representatives would do their job and set a good example instead of continuing to blunder in government as the previous Barisan Nasional leaders had done.

“The people do not wish to see one set of irresponsible politicians be replaced with another,” he said.

In another reminder, Arshad said Patriot members were former servicemen who had suffered much hardship to protect the country, adding that some had been commanders in the nation’s security forces and fully understood what is necessary for good leadership.

“Politicians must stop the nonsense of intra party factional fighting through making public spectacle of disgusting sexual acts. They must behave, show maturity, and be good leaders,” he stressed.

Arshad noted that prominent economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram had recently cautioned the government to steel the country for repercussions from external economic factors, namely the conflict between western superpower the US and Asian giant China by focusing more on strengthening direct domestic investments.

The senior economic adviser at government think tank Khazanah Research Institute warned that a fallout between the US and China could last several months if not years, and that Malaysia’s economy would not be spared from a global recession.