Azizan Won’t Get Another Term as Kedah MB
by Haris Dol of 
Kedah Mentri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak is a man who won’t take any crap from nobody. Talking about nobody, no one really had heard of him until he got criticized about a year ago by Umno leaders for allegedly not doing enough to help the flood victims in the state. We don’t know how true this is but sources say he is popular among the people in Kedah.
But it was the Azizan’s use of the Universities and University Colleges Act (AUKU) against five students of the state-owned Kolej Universiti Insaniah (KUIN) which got the MB in a bigger limelight. Sticking to his decision of using the very Act the Opposition as well as some Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders had been fighting to abolish, he then lambasted his critics who questioned him for supporting the suspension of the five students for organizing protests against the college. This earned him a gag order from PAS’ leadership.
To the delight of his detractors, especially the rivals from BN, the issue had caused a stir among Pakatan leaders who were not too hot on Azizan’s comments that touched on the AUKU and the Opposition pact’s Buku Jingga which clearly states that Pakatan is against AUKU. To this, Azizan responded by saying that Buku Jingga is not the Quran.
More recently, the Kedah government went through a crisis after it was revealed that two state executive councilors claimed that they had lost confidence in Azizan’s leadership and declined reappointment as state excos for the 2012 term. However, the party managed to resolve the issue after convincing the two unhappy excos, Phahrolrazi Mohd Zawawi and Dr Ismail Salleh, to change their minds.
With the way things have been going with Azizan it’s just a matter of time before another controversy emerge involving the MB. There’s already some form of conflict between the ulama bunch and the newer ‘professional’ faction in PAS. On top of that, the party has to deal with frictions between its Pakatan partners. It must be said that it’s these new ‘professional’ PAS leaders who are more keen on forging the partnership with DAP and PKR. If not because of Nik Aziz Nik Mat’s adoration for Anwar Ibrahim PAS would never be part of Pakatan. Let’s not forget there’s also the Hasan Ali factor to consider.
Azizan, however, must be given credit for being a good leader who won’t bow down to criticisms even if it comes from his party colleagues. But the real question is, is Azizan good for Pakatan’s future?
