The ‘Traitor’?

(Sin Chew Daily) – Khalid’s “collaboration” with BN, especially as the by-election war is now raging in Kajang, will take one issue out of the race, giving Anwar one reason less to be the MB. If Khalid is not the traitor then what is he?

Finally some senses have come back again to the Selangor water supply issue. The federal and state governments have struck a deal and signed a MoU.

If lucky enough (hopefully not another six more years), people from Kajang through Balakong could look forward to unstoppable water gushing out of the tap.

Thanks to the tussle between the federal and state governments over the past six years, the Langat 2 water treatment plant (LRAL2) project has been made to lie idle on the drawing board. The result? Perennial water woes in the country’s richest state.

There has only been one reason. The state’s water supply issue has been made the primary battleground in the confrontation between both governments, just like two enormous rhinos fighting so hard to force out the other. In the end, none of the giant rhinos gets hurt, but the grass under their feet has been squashed to death in their stead.

The MoU is not a very complicated one. Selangor will take out the cash to acquire four water supply companies in the state and put them under the full jurisdiction of the state government. In the meantime, the federal government will get the green light from the state government to initiate the LRAL2 project and bring to fruition the splendid water transfer project from Pahang to Selangor.

If things go smoothly, water shortage will become a thing of the past for Selangor.

Neither the federal nor the state government would lose out in the deal, although the residents of Selangor will eventually emerge as the biggest beneficiaries.

If you are still skeptical of “national reconciliation,” this is going to be an excellent instance of it, I guess.

Politicians should lay down their confrontational stands and sit down to talk. A small gesture of compromise will not hurt any party in any way, but will deliver the people out of their plight.

As a resident of the state, I can’t help but to give a big thumbs-up to menteri besar Khalid Ibrahim for getting the MoU signed. Khalid is a very pragmatic guy whom many say is like a CEO that thinks in a macroscopic way.

Sure enough there are others who fail to see his sincerity in signing the MoU, especially with the BN’s big bosses standing behind to witness the signing ceremony. Party loyalists would start jumping out to hurl curses at Khalid for betraying Pakatan without even making the slightest effort to understand the content of the MoU.

Both Anwar Ibrahim and Rafizi Ramli said they and their party had not been briefed beforehand.

Khalid’s “collaboration” with BN, especially as the by-election war is now raging in Kajang, will take one issue out of the race, giving Anwar one reason less to be the MB. If Khalid is not the traitor then what is he?

To be fair to Khalid, he is the menteri besar and what he was dealing with was a state matter which should only be made accountable to the people of Selangor, not Khalid’s party. He only needed to secure the state legislative assembly’s consent, not the party’s. As for whether Anwar or the party’s “strategy director” should be briefed earlier, I personally do not think it necessary.

If Anwar becomes the next Selangor MB, he should be happy he will have one trouble less, unless he has some other things in mind.

He also will not need to worry he has one reason less to be the MB, as he will still have 99 others in his pocket.

The Selangor water issue should be tackled separately from the Kajang by-election. To be honest, if the water issue is resolved amicably, Pakatan could even expect a boost in its chances in Kajang.

Unfortunately, given the current pathetic state of political ecosystem in the country, clear-cut confrontation seems to prevail over the interest of the public or the so-called national reconciliation, which could be very dangerous.