Will Pakatan PAS(s) the test?
There is no one in Anwar’s party PKR who is capable of helming Pakatan at a time like this.
While ABU is the true rallying cry for the rakyat who needs to dump Umno into oblivion, the rakyat will also want to see who is going to helm the Pakatan Rakyat if Anwar Ibrahim is convicted and jailed. While we feel sorry for Anwar, there is nothing much we can do for him as he is a victim of Umno’s fears.
Selena Tay, Free Malaysia Today
The writing is on the wall, literally, for Umno is there for all to see: ‘ABU’ which was in bold black letters on the walls of buildings near KL Masjid Jamek LRT station and also near Central Market in KL.
No one knows the name of the unsung hero who came up with this brilliant acronym that has the same meaning in Malay as well as in English. (In Malay it is Asalkan Bukan Umno and in English it is Anyone But Umno.)
While ABU is the true rallying cry for the rakyat who needs to dump Umno into oblivion, the rakyat will also want to see who is going to helm the Pakatan Rakyat if Anwar Ibrahim is convicted and jailed.
While we feel sorry for Anwar, there is nothing much we can do for him as he is a victim of Umno’s fears.
Politics being the ruthless, fast and brutal game that it is, it is time for Pakatan to be decisive and put in someone who is really capable of leading the opposition and take charge in a moment of crisis.
It will be a baptism of fire and will need someone with a clear head and forward vision who can lead the nation into the era of new politics and ensure the survival of Pakatan in a fledgling two-party system.
There is no one in Anwar’s party, PKR who is capable of helming Pakatan at a time like this.
The three choices
Not when it is BN’s plan to throw Pakatan into chaos and disarray. But there are three very capable leaders in PAS who can and should lead Pakatan.
Here is a brief overview of them:
1. Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad
This PAS Kuala Selangor MP has a doctorate in toxicology and is known by one and all as a hardworking MP. He is even acknowledged as an intellectual by a local English daily which is a part of the BN-controlled mainstream media and is the one and only Pakatan MP whom Umno MPs dare not call ‘ bodoh’ during the Parliamentary debates. (The Umno MPs like to shout ‘duduklah, bodoh’ at the Pakatan MPs each time the latter stand up to speak but they lack the courage to shout ‘duduklah, bodoh’ at Dzulkefly.)
Dzulkefly has written excellent opinion pieces in his blog and his moderate views are liked by many. He has published a book entitled ‘Blind Spot’ before the 2008 general election and is now in the process of writing another book. His favourite line is from Victor Hugo: ‘it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong’.
2. Khalid Samad
This PAS MP is in the hotseat of Shah Alam. His detractors in pro-Umno blogs take delight in calling him ‘Church Khalid’ and ‘Father Khalid’ to undermine his credibility as a good practising Muslim just because he has visited the Catholic church in his constituency to meet his constituents. Umno supporters also try to irritate and annoy him daily via Twitter but he says trading insults with them is a form of entertainment and relaxation!
In the past he has labelled the budget of the BN government as ‘the Mona Lisa Budget’. This is due to the BN government lifting ideas from Pakatan’s Orange Book and Khalid opined that BN’s move is similar to those artists who copy Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa – their work is good but nothing beats the original.
3. Nizar Jamaluddin
The current MP for Bukit Gantang and state assemblyman of Pasir Panjang in Perak. He has already received his baptism of fire during the Perak power-grab masterminded by BN. At all times he has acted calmly and rationally. His 10-month tenure as Perak Menter Besar earned the praise of the Auditor-General for being thrifty and cost-conscious. His enemies have accused him of being a DAP stooge but this is untrue as he has given approval for land requests fairly to everyone. A significant event is the issue of Pondok Pak Teh.
The late Pak Teh had requested for a piece of land to build a pondok religious school since 2004 when Umno’s Tajol Rosli was the Menteri Besar. The request was rejected year after year until Pakatan came to power in Perak and the request was approved during one of the Pakatan state government’s exco meetings.
But in the recent Perak state assembly sitting in November last year, current Menteri Besar, Umno’s Zambry Abdul Kadir rose to announce that he was the one who approved the request of the late Pak Teh. But no Umno MP supported Zambry’s statement because all of them knew that it was false. Nizar then promptly stood up to clarify the matter and told everyone that the late Pak Teh was so grateful to Pakatan that he had commissioned a thank-you certificate to be given to Pakatan as a form of appreciation to show his gratefulness to the Pakatan state government and before he passed away he had also urged his fellow village people to vote for Pakatan.
Nizar announced that he still has this certificate in his possession. In addition to that, the working relationship between all the Pakatan component parties is the best in Perak.
Nizar is also very popular among the Chinese due to his ability in singing ‘The Moon Is In My Heart’, a popular oldie sung by the late Teresa Teng.
