Playing the survival game
Is the Kajang by-election really about the 14th general election or is it about the political survival of one man?
Joceline Tan, The Star
RAFIZI Ramli has had a spectacular couple of years during which he could do no wrong in the eyes of his admirers. But PKR’s golden boy has suffered a stunning fall from grace. The brains behind the controversial Kajang Move has gone overnight from hero to zero.
He has argued, pleaded, apologised and even cried in trying to explain why the Kajang by-election is necessary. But the Pandan MP and PKR strategist seems to have lost his mojo because no one seems convinced.
He has had several sessions to talk about the by-election. But nothing was working and during a public forum in Subang Jaya on Wednesday, he announced that he would not be explaining anymore about the Kajang move. It has been an agonising week for him.
Everything he has said has been thrown back at him and he even got into a slanging match on Twitter with a fellow PKR man. The avid Twitter user has an odd habit of peppering his tweets with “ha3” (ha ha ha) but that “ha3” has been missing from his tweets of late.
Rafizi must have thought his admirers out there would lap up the justifications for his grand design. He had started off by explaining that the by-election was necessary to launch Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to Putrajaya.
Then he stepped it up and argued that Anwar, being a much better politician than Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, would do a better job in Selangor. Khalid’s fans, already indignant at what they viewed as a political coup to oust Khalid, found the comment disrespectful.
“He has lurched from one reason to another. It was so amateurish,” said a political insider.
But the one that took the cake was the suggestion that Selangor needed Anwar to be there in case Umno engineered emergency rule to take back Selangor. A former Pakatan MP had one word for the last argument: “B******t”.
Some politicians in Barisan Nasional are quite famous for making statements that insult people’s intelligence but it seems like that sort of talent is found on both sides of the divide. It does not send the right signal to the many young, idealistic people that PKR has managed to attract.
Rafizi: Credibility deficit over Kajang Move.
The embattled politician, as one PKR member noted, was trying to “explain the unexplainable”.
“All those public relations stunts – he has not been able to convince people like me, the independent middle ground. It’s a fail,” said management and strategy consultant Khoo Kay Peng.
The issue had acquired a life of its own. It was not the best way to start an election campaign. The more Rafizi talked, the worse it looked. It was better to shut up and just get on with their plan to make Anwar the next Mentri Besar.
The idea of Anwar becoming Mentri Besar of Selangor was first mooted in 2009 by the wealthy businessman Datuk John Soh Chee Wen who had thrown his support behind Anwar. Soh was a strategist in his own right although in a different league from Rafizi.
At that time, intimate pictures of Bukit Lanjan assemblywoman Elizabeth Wong had rocked the party and she was under pressure to resign. The party was already dissatisfied with Khalid’s corporate style and Soh suggested that Anwar contest the by-election and take over from Khalid.
The idea was as radical then as it is now and would have invited a similar uproar except that the reason for the by-election would have been less manipulative. But it fizzled out because Anwar thought the Mentri Besar post did not measure up to his status.
Anwar has steered clear of trying to explain things even though he is also to blame. You can lead a horse to water but you cannot force it to drink unless it is thirsty, and Anwar is thirsty for power.
“For Kajang people, it is about solving their problems. Anwar has started talking about what he intends to do for Kajang rather than explain the unexplainable,” said Khoo.
Despite complaining about the long wait from now till polling day, Anwar is making good use of the headstart while Barisan has yet to name its candidate.
Anwar thrives on chaos. He has been stopping by at mosques and surau in Kajang every evening, sometimes delivering the tazkirah at places where the surau committee is controlled by PAS supporters. The imam of one of the surau is reportedly a former police officer in Sungai Buloh where Anwar was held in 1998.
Wooing the Malays
He is remarkably energetic for a 66-year-old grandfather. He can switch on the charm just like that, flashing that famous smile, pressing palms and making small talk. He is confident of the Chinese vote but less so of the Malay vote, hence the early start to reach out to the Malays and what better place than at the religious heart of the community.
Meanwhile, Khalid seems to be spending his final lap on a rampage of sorts. A few days ago, 20 senior officials of PKNS were sacked. Khalid, who is PKNS chairman, has denied he is behind it and has asked new PKNS general manager Azlan Md Alifiah for a report on the sacking.
Yet, sources said Azlan was only acting on orders. Khalid had apparently summoned Azlan to his Bukit Damansara house last weekend and instructed him to give those officials the marching orders. He viewed these officials as political operators of Azmin.
Even Anwar’s political staff have not been spared by Khalid’s rod. Anwar’s political officer Najwan Halimi, who is on the payroll of Selangor’s MBI or Mentri Besar Inc, has also been issued a show cause letter as to why he should not be sacked. Najwan had apparently attended and tweeted about a protest last month in connection with the sacking of three top PKNS officials.
Azmin: Damage control behind the scenes.
Khalid would have loved to take Azmin down with him. One of Khalid’s demands for agreeing to step aside was that Azmin resign for Anwar to contest in Bukit Antarabangsa. He wanted to cut off Azmin’s political base and any future chance of Azmin becoming the Mentri Besar. But Bukit Antarabangsa was not an option for Anwar and Khalid did not get his wish.
Anwar and Azmin have had their ups and downs but they enjoy an unbreakable bond, so much so that Azmin’s detractors refer to him as Anwar’s “favourite puppy”. Besides, Azmin is too powerful in Selangor where he is the PKR chairman.
During the launch of the PKR election machinery in Kajang, Khalid who made a speech did not even mention Azmin in the honorifics even though they had been seated next to each other. The animosity is that deep and personal.
But Khalid got his way and was made the by-election director in Kajang after a marathon discussion from 10am till late afternoon. There was some opposition to that because the last time Khalid headed a by-election was in the Hulu Selangor constituency. Khalid simply did not have the political aptitude or urgency to run a campaign and the PKR seat fell to Barisan.
Anwar is still heavily dependent on Azmin and has asked him to monitor things in Kajang on a daily basis.
Some think Azmin is demoralised and is sulking. He was said to be taken aback by The Star poll where netizens rated him last among a variety of names for Mentri Besar. But all said and done, Azmin is probably waiting to see the last of Khalid.
He has been working behind the scenes to soothe feathers of Pakatan leaders who are still upset about the by-election. Last week, he made a special trip to Penang, ostensibly for the state Chinese New Year open house but it was to personally explain things to Lim Guan Eng. Media people who saw him seated at the VVIP table with the Governor, Chief Minister and State Secretary tried to probe why he was there but he just smiled.
He has held discussions with a string of PAS politicians, including Paya Jaras assemblyman Khairuddin Othman who had made very rough comments about the by-election and managed to persuade the PAS man to appear on stage with Anwar in Kajang.
After Azmin met up with Tony Pua, the Selangor DAP chairman declared that “if Anwar loses in Kajang, then forget about winning PRU14”.
It was quite an ingenious statement but as everyone knows, the key to Putrajaya is via Parliament and Anwar is still Permatang Pauh MP. Kajang has less to do with the road to Putrajaya than the political survival of Anwar and those around him.
“They are playing the survival game to win Kajang,” said Khoo.
Everyone has noticed that PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has yet to say a single word about the by-election. She is either upset about what the party is doing to Khalid who is her close ally or she is just being her usual low-profile self.
Prof Redzuan Mohammad of UMcedel (Universiti Malaya Centre for Democracy and Election), who lives in Kajang, is predicting that Anwar will win by a bigger majority because voter sentiment has not shifted much since May 5.
Anwar has been criticised for joining the political travelling circus popularised by the DAP – political leaders who have no commitment to a particular state or seat and who go from state to state looking for seats to contest.
But if Anwar makes it into the Mentri Besar’s office, he will be changing the rules of Malay politics for ever. No Malay politician has ever become the Mentri Besar or Chief Minister of a state he has no ties with. That is what makes this whole thing so riveting.
The Malay political culture tends to prefer an anak jati (native son) as their wakil rakyat. Yet, Anwar who is Penang born and bred is parachuting headlong into Selangor.
He will land on his feet in Kajang but not everyone is sure if his parachute will open for him to land in the Mentri Besar’s office.
