By Wong Choon Mei, Harakah

What is going on at PKR? Is it really falling apart because of fears that Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, the adviser and pulse of the party, might soon be jailed for sodomy?

Can it truly be that some of the leaders in PKR are so treacherous, so easily enamored by the big bucks and promises of power dangled by arch rival Umno, that they would defect even at the risk of permanently damaging their own credibility?

Or are they truly fed up with Anwar’s leadership and the alleged favoritism he shows towards certain members as they claim.

Then what about the internal power struggles and the conspiracies that have been simmering in the party? Is this latest rash of defections an indication that these have finally boiled over?

The last scenario certainly looks the most plausible although No. 2 also carries a solid a ring of truth to it. Even to the inexperienced eye, PKR - with its shorter political history - has always been the ideal bed to plant political moles and Trojan horses compared with PAS and DAP, and is long overdue for a massive cleansing.

Top PKR leaders admit as much. With the clock ticking down on his party, Anwar has no choice but to get tough although his actions were also magnified by Prime Minister Najib Razak rushing to 'profit' from the purge and noisily sucking up the PKR excrement.

“We believe that performance and accountability are paramount. Continuous improvement through revamping leadership is important,” PKR strategic director Tian Chua told Harakahdaily.

“For example, in Kedah next week, we have asked MB Azizan to replace one of the three PKR assemblymen in the state executive council. In the process of cleaning up, some legislators or members might threaten to quit the party, so be it. Even some might join BN but we are ready to face short-term pain for the long-term good of the party.”

Major surgery

Indeed it is a tough call for the PKR top leadership. More than DAP and PAS, it has been rocked by unfaithful members who not only jumped ship unceremoniously but also behaved dreadfully by creating as much damage as they could to Anwar before leaving.

So bad has the publicity been that he was forced to personally apologize to voters last month for not picking better people to represent the PKR.

"In 2008, PKR was under serious financial constraints and we did not have the luxury of choice," Anwar told a packed rally in mid-February.

Nevertheless, despite his troubles, the 62-year reform icon has still managed to retain his charisma and the respect of his party mates by plowing ahead with what can best be described as daring and large-scale surgery for the PKR.

Since 2008, the party has lost several state assemblymen to Umno-BN, including Jamaluddin Radzi of Behrang, Perak, Mohd Osmain Jailu of Changkat Jering, Perak, Badrul Hisham Abdullah of Port Kelang, Selangor and Mohd Radzi Salleh of Lunas, Kedah.

At the federal level, Zahrain Mohd Hashim, the Bayan Baru MP and Tan Tee Beng, the Nibong Tebal MP, have been the latest to quit, while Kulim Bandar Bharu MP Zulkifli Noordin is widely expected to follow. All have since either declared themselves as friendly to Umno-BN or are expected to do soon.

Several high-profile members without seats have also left the party. These include former secretary-general Salehuddin Hashim and former Penanti assemblyman Fairus Khairuddin, who recently announced their resignations.

The emergence of John Soh

Also interesting to watch may be the move of fallen tycoon Soh Chee Wen, who is widely seen as part of Salehuddin’s cohort within the PKR and not on good terms with vice president Azmin Ali and new secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution.

The motive of Soh's entry into the party has been mysterious. A former stockbroker-businessman, Soh's emergence in PKR has raised eyebrows because of his past links to former Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin, ex-MCA president Ling Liong Sik and his son Hee Leong. 

In 2002, Soh was arrested on arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport after having fled the country in 1999 in the wake of the Asian financial crisis. In 2007, he pleaded guilty to two charges of securities fraud and was fined a total of RM6 million, or 30 months jail for each charge in default of payment.

Nonetheless he surprised many business people and those in the MCA circles, when after the 2008 general election, he openly declared his financial support for Anwar and the PKR. Soh has often been seen operating from the party headquarters in Tropicana when Salehuddin was still the secretary-general.

“But now with Salehuddin out of PKR, Soh may find himself isolated without any special role. He can choose to stay on as an ordinary member but the question is: how deep is his loyalty to PKR or Anwar?” a former MCA member who had joined PKR told Harakahdaily on the condition of anonymity.

“Even Salehuddin used to profess hero-worship for Anwar but when Anwar did not support him against Khalid Ibrahim (the Selangor Mentri Besar), he got angry and started to go against his own mentor.”

The Salehuddin faction

Speculation has been rife that Salehuddin and his faction wanted to oust Khalid because he would not grant them cushy jobs in state-linked firms, which in turn could open new doors to lucrative projects and deals.

According to news reports, they painted Khalid as an inept leader and deliberately pitted him against Azmin Ali by leaking stories to the press of a ‘bitter rivalry’ between the two men.

Unhappy with Anwar's trust in Azmin, the group is also believed to be behind recent rumors that Azmin was out to stymie Jeffrey Kitingan's rise in PKR. Kitingan is the vice-president for Sabah and Sarawak, two key states that Pakatan must win to wrest the federal government from Umno-BN.

More recently, the faction has been linked to a move to drive a wedge between Anwar and senior leader Zaid Ibrahim by insinuating that the latter was about to resign over differences in opinions as to how PKR should be run.

“But when Anwar took up the post of Selangor economic adviser and got more involved in the running of the state, he could see that Khalid had been right in many of the decisions opposed by Salehuddin, including the takeover of the debts in Talam Corp,” the PKR source said.

“There was also the misreporting in Malaysiakini about Kitingan and how Salehuddin was upset at the 'mess' Azmin created in Sabah. It was obvious then that party had been infiltrated and Lateefa (the information chief) had to write a complaint to the portal as well as issue a clarification. That was when Anwar, who was already suspicious, decided it was time to clean up PKR once and for all.”  

Harakahdaily has not been able to contact either Salehuddin or Soh for their responses so far. However at a press conference held by Tee Beng on Monday to announce his resignation, Salehuddin was conspicuously present, darkly warning that more PKR members would soon leave.

“It may be more than 10. Take away the socialist group, take away the NGO group, take away the cronies - you can count for yourself and you will get the answer. But they won't all jump at once, they will come in ones and twos,” he told reporters.

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