A timely lesson for Khir as he cries foul over his ban
By Wong Choon Mei (Suara Keadilan)
It cannot be denied that the majority of Selangor folk reacted with a sigh of relief and a “Serves Him Right!” when news broke that former menteri besar and Umno hot-head Khir Toyo had been suspended by the Pakatan Rakyat state government for 12 months.
It is a tough job figuring out Khir, who must fancy himself to believe that he still holds the respect of Selangorians.
Quite frankly, most of them will tell anyone who bothers to ask that they are actually quite sick and tired of him and his gutter-politicking.
From cows to cars, lavish visits to Disneyland and even to the persecution of fellow assemblymen Teresa Kok and Eli Wong – these are all that the 44-year old, rightly or wrongly, can claim fame to since losing the country’s most urban state to PKR leader Khalid Ibrahim on March 8, 2008.
Before that watershed election, Khir – who wielded enormous power in his time – was known for many more things. Unfortunately, most of these were also related to allegations of corruption.
Birds of a feather flocking together
So when he refused to turn for an inquiry by the House committee of rights and privileges, scorning the authority of the newly-installed Pakatan state government, they slapped him with a 12 month ban from the legislative assembly and also frozed his allowances.
Refusing to be cowed, Khir immediately counter-attacked. But his weightless words blew like chaff into the wind. For respect once lost is hard to regain.
And that is a lesson that even his boss, Prime Minister Najib Razak, the new Selangor Umno head, is trying to hard to learn. Quick to leave behind the time-bomb he created in Perak, Najib is probably the last person Khir should seek advice from on how to make himself popular again.
Other than flocking together like birds of a feather, neither men can contribute to Selangor state – not without the confidence of the people behind them.
“If they think they can muzzle me, they are wrong. Barisan Nasional will continue to speak up,” a defiant Khir shot out at a press conference called on Wednesday specially to give his version of the incident.
“In Parliament they talk about freedom but in the state they want to shut us up. We will explain to the people of Selangor that the government is afraid of criticism, and as the opposition leader I will continue to expose the government’s weaknesses so they can correct themselves.”
Deflecting attention from corruption accusations
As the wheels of democracy must turn come what may, so too Khir must be allowed to spread his message of ‘love’ to the Selangor folk. And whether he can convince them or end up putting them off even more is entirely up to them.
“He can advertise in the newspapers every day as far as we are concerned. Our message is just simply this – don’t try to be funny and disrespect the new administration just to score brownie points within Umno.
“Secondly, we wish to remind it was an investigation into alleged misconduct into a staggering RM10 million of funds suddenly vanishing from the Balkis account. So, don’t try to deflect attention from the real issue,” said Pakatan leader.
Balkis is an acronym for Wives of Selangor Assemblymen and MPs Welfare and Charity Organisation. Immediately after the 2008 electoral loss, Khir and his wife moved to de-register and transfer the funds out of Balkis.
“We would like to stress that the Selangor Government has a right over the funds considering the majority of the money were donations from the state and its agencies,” Nik Nazmi, the Seri Setia assemblyman and Khalid’s political secretary, had said.
