KeADILan deputy president Dr Chandra Muzaffar will quit the party soon. He had voiced his intention to resign to the party leadership at a meeting after the recent general elections. According to party sources, Chandra is considering going back to academic and NGO work. This new development lends weight to talks of an impending crisis within the KeADILan leadership. However, party sources said that the official letter of resignation had not yet been "accepted" by the party.

"Dr Chandra has expressed his plan to resign from his post as deputy president, and he has consulted a number of his friends and party leaders regarding his decision," said Mohamad Ezam M. Nor, KeADILan's youth chief, when contacted by malaysiakini.

"His decision to resign is not because of his failure in the recent elections," he said. Ezam also stressed that the resignation was not the result of pressure from within the party.

"Chandra has received an important offer from an international NGO. However, the party still need his service," he said. "Personally, I hope that he would continue leading the party and at the same time accept the offer from the said NGO."

KeADILan vice-president Marina Mohd Yusoff refused to comment on the issue when contacted by malaysiakini. However, she believed that the party will remain strong even if there are changes in its top leadership.

"Unlike Semangat 46, the strength of KeADILan is based on the spirit of the youth at the grassroots level," said Marina. She pointed out the party machinery was strong in the last elections despite that KeADILan was only seven months old.

Chandra cannot be reached for comments since he is attending an international conference in South Africa. He is expected to return in a few days.

Chandra is said to have been offered a key position in an international NGO on civilisational dialogue. Before joining KeADILan, he was the director of the Centre for Civilisational Dialogue in University Malaya.

His contract was terminated by the university after he harshly criticised the government when he was actively involved with the Council of Peoples' Movement for Justice (Gerak), which was formed immediately after the arrest of former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim.

Unofficial sources in the party said that Chandra's leadership had been criticised by various parties. "It is not because of the defeat in the recent elections, it was because his style of leadership was unacceptable by a number of party supporters," said a source close to KeADILan headquarters.

In the last elections, Chandra was beaten by Barisan Nasional candidate Tan Chai Ho in Bandar Tun Razak by a narrow majority of 1,224 votes. During the election campaign, talks of his resignation were circulating among a close circle of activists and party leaders.

"While he is revered as a prominent intellectual, Chandra is seen as not being very successful in leading a political party. He himself admitted to that fact," said a party source.