PKR: In shreds and lost in direction
Shah A.D. The Malaysian Times
Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) appears to be in tatters. With internal elections due in March, party president Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail appears to be in the blind about what is happening.
She’s transmitting something; perhaps a call for someone to take over her place. But nobody seems to be receiving her message.
Husband Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has not been in a pleasant mood lately after he was barred entry into Japan over a visa issue while daughter Nurul Izzah is bogged down with a domestic problem.
At the same time, there are reports of a worsening rift between deputy president Azmin Ali and Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim; while vice-president Tian Chua faces a month’s jail and a RM1,000 fine for disobeying a police order in 2009.
Elsewhere, party members are getting jeers over a vegetable issue implicating Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
LONG-DRAWN ISSUES
To the rest of the country, the PKR is somewhere out there in orbit like a troubled space craft; spinning and trying to dodge the debris flying towards it. In what direction is it going?
Ironically, it’s a question that Nurul Izzah can ask about her 10-year marriage to Raja Ahmad Shahrir Iskandar Raja Salim, with whom she has two children.
By itself, this is an intriguing issue as there are reports saying she has sought a Syariah court order to annul her marriage and yet another report says she has denied asking for a separation from Raja Ahmad Shahrir.
In the latest twist to the drama Thursday evening, reports surfaced that the PKR vice-president and Lembah Pantai MP may be withdrawing her divorce petition Friday.
It is understood her family members had persuaded the couple to work things out after news broke that Nurul Izzah had asked the court for a fasakh order (to annul the marriage).
It looks like this is going to be another long-drawn issue for the family, while Anwar continues to grouch after raising a storm in Japan.
Embassy official Tomoko Nagai said while Japan lifted a requirement that Malaysians obtain visas to enter the country last year, Anwar is still required to have one due to his past criminal record.
She said Anwar did not apply for a visa, as he had for previous visits.
Anwar, the supposedly prime minister-in-waiting, had not stopped accusing the government of a campaign of harassment against him, including alleged trumped-up criminal charges purportedly designed to smear his name.
So, whenever he faces an issue or a dilemma, it is easy to point his fingers at Najib’s administration and Umno.
BBC AND KANGKUNG
Anwar blames the government over his deportation and days before the incident, he was also firing salvos at Najib over another issue.
He accused the government of “being at work to clamp on dissent” when some Internet users complained of difficulty in accessing a news report on the BBC website on the kangkung issue.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, the country’s communication and Internet regulator, denied it blocked the BBC reports and Anwar later admitted he could not confirm whether the MCMC had been the hindrance.
At the height of the issue on Wednesday, Tian Chua, another PKR vice-president, made a startling statement that if government leaders, including the Prime Minister, cannot be mocked, Malaysia is not a democracy.
This is the same person who asked Umno to settle out of court the lawsuit relating to his remarks that the Lahad Datu incident early last year was a sandiwara (theatrical drama) by the party.
Was he mocking Umno then? Did he believe at that time, as he believes now, that it was his democratic right to mock others?
Umno’s decision on Jan 13 to withdraw the civil suit against Tian Chua and two others – KeadilanDaily.com editor Fazallah Pit and article writer Aisha Geoffrey – did not go down well with party members who feel the three got away with just a “slap on the wrist” for such severe allegations implicating Umno and the security forces.
Nevertheless, with Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor left to deal with his disgruntled party members and the defamation suit settled, Tian Chua still faced sedition charges following several police reports against him on the intrusion.
In the meantime, he went on to make more mischief by supporting fellow PKR official Lee Khai Loon, who shoved kangkung into the mouth of an effigy of the Prime Minister at a market place in mainland Penang last week.
But when Umno supporters staged two counter-protests over the weekend to condemn the so-called kangkung flash mob he had organised, the Machang Bubuk assemblyman was not pleased.
