When two forces collide

ARCHIVES 2012

By MT Webmaster On Oct 15, 2012

But you should not underestimate Faekah either. This girl may be small in size but she is big in resolve — sort of like cili padi. And she is fighting back. Her ‘team’ is talking about the large sums of money Azmin has been siphoning out in the name of the party as well as in the name of the Free Anwar Campaign (FAC) over the last 12 years since 2000. And they are talking about millions.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

PKR won’t be taking action against Faekah

(The Star, 12 Oct 2012) – PKR is not taking any action against the Selangor Mentri Besar’s political aide Faekah Husin despite calls for her to be sacked following her criticisms against party deputy president Azmin Ali.

PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution said the matter involving Faekah was not even discussed at its political bureau meeting on Wednesday.

“We are not referring her to the disciplinary committee,” he said, adding that the party certainly won’t be taking any disciplinary action against Faekah for now.

Saifuddin was commenting on calls by some party leaders for Faekah to be sacked for criticising Azmin, who had implied that her boss Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim would not be retained as Selangor Mentri Besar.

Selangor PKR election director Borhan Aman Shah had said Faekah should be sacked immediately for publicly criticising state chief Azmin. The MB’s deputy Zuraida Kamaruddin had also hit back at Faekah for saying that Azmin was not a smart politician.

Saifuddin said the political bureau had discussed the divisions’ AGM reports during the meeting.

“We also discussed the latest status of our election preparations and other current issues,” he added.

Many observers had viewed the Khalid-Faekah-Azmin feud with interest as the aide was known to have the support of PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail while Azmin had the backing of party leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

“As Faekah is working under Khalid, Khalid is seen indirectly as having Wan Azizah’s backing,” said a party insider.

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Battle for MB post eclipses polls

(The Star, 14 Oct 2012) – Khalid’s chief defender has been his loyal political secretary Faekah Husin. She did not mince her words about Azmin’s interview; as a result she has been severely criticised by Azmin’s camp.

The petite lawyer admitted with a laugh, “there are bullet holes all over my body.”

Azmin’s boys joke that Faekah is the “First Lady of Selangor”. They go for her because she is an easier target to hit than Khalid and there are now renewed calls to sack her for criticising Azmin.

But sacked from what and for what? Faekah is only an ordinary party member, she does not have a party post and her remarks about Azmin were rather mundane.

Moreover, the only person who can sack her is Khalid and he trusts her implicitly; that is what makes her so powerful in Selangor.

Faekah is Khalid’s spokeswoman, and during the launch of his book Fearless: From Kampung Boy to CEO, he singled her out for mention. Going by the video that was aired during the launch, it is quite clear that she is central to Khalid’s politics and work.

Her power status goes up another notch if one considers that she was the former political secretary to PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and they are still very close. Azmin’s boys know they will have to take Faekah down before they can get Khalid, hence the periodic calls for her removal.

In June this year, a group using the Twitter handle @PecatFaekah had agitated for Faekah’s resignation. The group has not given up and has since extended their scope to @PecatFaekah/Arfah, the latter being Khalid’s press secretary.

While Khalid relies on Faekah to check Azmin, Azmin uses Ampang MP Zuraidah Kamaruddin to poke at Khalid. They are Alpha females who do not mind taking the heat for their men.

Zuraidah, who is Azmin’s No. 2 in Selangor, ticked off Khalid a few months ago when he declined to defend Azmin over some compromising photographs of a couple in a toilet. More recently, she lectured Faekah for “jumping the gun” and told her to improve her communication skills with party leaders.

Azmin’s supporters maintain that the MB post should have gone to him instead of Khalid. Azmin was in the lead to be the MB when Selangor fell in 2008.

But in the early hours of March 9, Khalid’s name overtook Azmin’s and by the time the sun came up, Khalid was confirmed as the choice of MB. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had opted for Khalid because he was a big corporate name and also because he thought that Khalid would be easier to control than Azmin; he was wrong on the second count.

Azmin was deeply disappointed and one of those at Anwar’s house that morning recalled witnessing how the de facto leader tried to placate Azmin for almost an hour.

“Azmin’s face was white with anger if you had cut it with a knife, there would have been no blood,” said an insider.

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Azmin Ali is pissed big time. He wanted PKR to sack Faekah Husin. Anwar Ibrahim, however, refused to do so. It is not that Anwar has any love for Faekah. In fact, between Azmin and Faekah, Anwar would stand behind Azmin any time. It is just that sacking Faekah would create a worse rift in PKR. And the rift is already bad as it is.

Azmin’s boys are now trying to undermine Faekah in other ways. They know they need to isolate Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim if they want to bring him down. So they need to first get rid of Faekah who is aligned to Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Nurul Izzah Anwar. These three ladies — Wan Azizah, Nurul Izzah and Faekah — are helping to keep Khalid afloat, even if it is just to prevent Azmin from getting Khalid’s job.

Azmin’s boys are now insinuating that Faekah is guilty of sexual misconduct. But they are not suggesting that it is with Khalid. They are ‘whispering’ that Faekah is a lesbian and that her partner is a lady doctor. This is actually a very old story and not even a story for that matter. Everyone knows that these two single girls are sharing a house. But that does not make them lesbians, as what Azmin’s boys are trying to suggest.

But you should not underestimate Faekah either. This girl may be small in size but she is big in resolve — sort of like cili padi. And she is fighting back. Her ‘team’ is talking about the large sums of money Azmin has been siphoning out in the name of the party as well as in the name of the Free Anwar Campaign (FAC) over the last 12 years since 2000. And they are talking about millions.

In fact, this is not a new story as well and is a story that I had already written about in the past. But Faekah’s ‘gurkhas’ are resurrecting this story in light of the recent Suaram and Malaysiakini exposes, which more or less involves the same people.

I remember telling you the story about one of Anwar’s lawyers, Pawancheek Marican, asking me to close down the FAC back in 2004. Pawancheek had asked me how much money I had received to fund the FAC and I told him so far only RM3,000 — RM1,000 from Wan Azizah and RM2,000 from Anwar’s brother, Rosli.

This made Pawancheek very upset. He said that ‘they’ had been collecting millions so how come I only received RM3,000? He also told me he had met Anwar in prison to complain about this but Anwar did not say anything. Hence Pawancheek suggested that I close down the FAC so that they can no longer use it to raise money.

And who are ‘they’? ‘They’ are Azmin Ali, Khalid Jaafar, Anuar Shaari, Dr Rahim Ghouse, Tian Chua, Elizabeth Wong, Saifuddin Nasution, Ezam Mohd Nor, Ruslan Kassim, etc.

On one occasion, one of the PAS leaders, an ‘Old Boy’ of MCKK, told me he met one of the FAC Directors in London together with a Malaysian tycoon-in-exile. I asked this PAS leader who this ‘Director’ was and he replied Khalid Jaafar.

I was surprised. Khalid Jaafar was not one of the FAC Directors so how come he was masquerading as one? On further investigation I found out that Khalid, as the ‘Director’ of the FAC, was in London to meet this Malaysian tycoon-in-exile to arrange ‘financing’ for the FAC. Millions changed hands but not a cent went to the FAC.

On another occasion, I received a phone call from the US asking me to confirm the four ‘Directors’ of the FAC. I asked the chap from the US what their names were. Azmin Ali, Anuar Shaari, and two others whose names I will keep as a surprise.

I vouched for these four people, as I did not want to place them in an embarrassing situation. I then immediately phoned Dr Rahim Ghouse in Perth and asked him about these four people. His response was, “Four? I thought only three.” I then named the four and Dr Rahim said, “Oh, Anuar Shaari also went, is it?”

My phone call to Dr Rahim ended in a bitter quarrel. I cursed him and swore at him, the worse language I could use that included ‘mother-fucker’ and all. We did not speak for more than a year after that.

There were a number of other occasions when the FAC’s name was used to raise quite a bit of money. Hence I was not surprised when in 2004 Pawancheek spoke to me about it. I just sighed and told him that I had known this for quite some time. But I swear, I told him, all I received was RM3,000 and not a cent more than that.

Just close down the FAC, Pawancheek told me. The bastards are using you to collect money. If they gave you some funding at least that is not so bad. Now, as it is, they are collecting millions while you are funding the FAC from your own pocket.

I did eventually close down the FAC, of course. But I did that on the day Anwar was released from jail on 2nd September 2004. And I closed down the FAC not because of the money they were collecting but because Anwar had been released from jail and I wanted to focus on Malaysia Today, which I had launched two weeks earlier.

And this is what they are going to use against Azmin. However, Khalid Jaafar, Anuar Shaari, Dr Rahim Ghouse, Tian Chua, Elizabeth Wong, Saifuddin Nasution, Ezam Mohd Nor, Ruslan Kassim, and a few others, are also going to get implicated. But then they are merely ‘collateral damage’ in this game of thrones.

Dr Wan Azizah and Nurul Izzah both know about this transgression. They have known for some time. They even suspect that Nurul Izzah’s wedding was used to raise a lot of money. Of course, Anwar’s family never saw this money. But will they tell the truth once this issue explodes or will they act dumb and pretend they know nothing about what Azmin and gang did and the millions they raised and pocketed in the name of the FAC?

I suppose, for the sake of the party, they might have to keep their mouths shut. But those who donated all this money are now talking. And they are revealing that they paid a lot of money, which they thought had gone to the party and to the FAC. Hence it is not that easy to keep the lid on this issue. And Azmin knows this so he is going to hit back even harder.

But then that is a story for tomorrow, so stay tuned.