DAP Parliamentary Leader Lim Kit Siang today for the first time admitted to the problems brewing within Pakatan Rakyat and PKR, sounding an ominous warning on a defeat at the Kajang polls if infighting persists.

“Datuk Seri Anwar’s real enemies in the Kajang by-election are not the independent candidates, MCA or even UMNO but PR/PKR internal feuds and infighting,” said Kit Siang.

He said there were “reasons for concern for some of the developments in Pakatan Rakyat and PKR in Selangor in the past month.”

“In the Kajang by-election, we can only suffer defeats and setbacks of our own making.”

Kit Siang called on his Pakatan Rakyat allies — in PKR, PAS and DAP — to close ranks, and put aside differences.

This, he said, was to ensure that Pakatan Rakyat do not shoot themselves in the foot “to deny our children and children’s children the one chance in more than half-a-century for political change in Putrajaya.”

"Let us face up to the harsh reality that a defeat in the Kajang by-election – in failing to achieve a resounding and historic victory – cannot be ruled out.

“We must never forget what Abraham Lincoln said: A house divided against itself cannot stand," he said

Kit Siang's statement today comes in the wake of a confirmation by Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim that he is set to challenge Azmin Ali for the party’s deputy president post, an indication of the widening rift within Pakatan Rakyat Selangor.

It was widely speculated that the Kajang by-election, which was triggered by PKR assemblyman Lee Chin Cheh's resignation, was fueled by the need to calm the feud between Khalid and Azmin.