Khalid disrupts Anwar’s plan?
Pakatan Rakyat could keep Kajang, but it must ensure that it causes no damage to public confidence.
Lim Sue Goan, Sin Chew Daily
Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim will contest the PKR deputy president post, challenging Azmin Ali in the party election. It seems like he is not willing to just let go his menteri besar post and thus, goes all out to give it a try.
From the evolution of the event, Khalid’s attitude has indeed changed.
Anwar told Sin Chew Daily in an exclusive interview that Khalid had in principle agreed to pass on the MB post to him, but Khalid has said nothing about it.
In mid-Feb, it was said that Khalid refused to resign. He had originally been arranged to sign a post-dated letter of resignation but he refused to sign. When being asked to comment on a poll showing 59% of Kajang voters supported Anwar to take over the Selangor menteri besar post, Khalid had just responded causally and said that it was just a poll.
In fact, making the Kajang state seat vacant to pave the way for Anwar to become the Selangor menteri besar was not the original intention of Khalid. It was reported that there was an agreement among Anwar, Azmin and Khalid before the resignation of Lee Chin Cheh. The trio agreed that Azmin should first resign as the Bukit Antarabangsa state assembly member to create a by-election, so that Anwar could contest for the vacant post and become the Selangor menteri besar after winning the by-election. However, Lee was the one who resigned eventually and the agreement collapsed.
It showed that Khalid has been pressed and if he has no intention to step down, he is expected to fight back fiercely. His wishful thinking is to win the party election and thereby, continues his political life.
He chose to declare challenge against Azmin before the by-election to convey the message that he does not yield.
It seems that Khalid has determined to get rid of the party’s control as he has inked the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the federal government over the water supply issue without notifying in advance the party’s leaders. It has, however, triggered a doubt among Pakatan Rakyat component parties. As the content of the MoU has been kept in secret, it raised a question of lack of transparency. Would the Langat 2 Project be contracted to cronies and would the cost for water restructuring be increased?
Khalid said that the reason to keep the MoU confidential is to avoid the intervention of some PKR leaders. If his allegations are true, these leaders have violated the commitment of defending the people’s interests as increasing the RM9.65 billion purchase price will benefit the water supply company.
In fact, Anwar and Azmin cannot blame Khalid for acting on his own as when they planned for the Kajang by-election, they did not discuss with the DAP and PAS either. Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had admitted that he received no prior notice about it.
The script written by Anwar is to settle the Selangor PKR infighting and march towards Putrajaya. The subsequent development, however, has gone out of the script. Khalid, who is gentle and does not know politics, might become the biggest obstacle.
It is believed that Anwar could win the by-election. But if Khalid refuses to step down, Pakatan Rakyat would have to decide who should be the menteri besar through an internal poll. Does PAS have another plan? Would PKR state assembly members supporting Khalid change their direction?
The PKR party election has been postponed to May 11. If the party election is going to decide Khalid’s fate, the issue will continue to haunt the party for over a month after the Kajang by-election and it is not conducive to the operation of the state government.
