The Selangor riddle
Rumours swirl and confusion reigns, but Anwar is still silent on where he stands regarding Khalid
Roslan Bistamam, Free Malaysia Today
This week has been a week of confusion for Selangor, brought on by the many rumours surrounding Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim’s future. Were the rumours “unfounded” in the sense that they were spontaneous by-products of various interpretations of current events, or were they, as Khalid’s people would say, engineered in an exercise of disinformation?
Last weekend there was talk of the national PAS leadership’s meeting with the PAS Selangor leaders to discuss Khalid’s position. Officials did not deny that the meeting took place but said the purpose was to discuss “all sorts” of things.
Then an announcement was made confirming that the position of the Menteri Besar was, in fact, discussed but no consensus was reached. It was further announced that all views would be taken into consideration before a decision on the matter would be made.
Those in the know said the reason no consensus was reached was that PAS was split into three groups—one that wanted Khalid’s removal, another that did not and a third that would agree to Khalid’s removal only if a PAS man replaced him.
Members of the media then rushed to the Sultan of Selangor’s palace to await Khalid’s arrival for an audience he was supposed to have with the Sultan. It was rumoured he would be tendering his resignation that day and that PAS’s Iskandar Samad would also turn up to be sworn in as the new Menteri Besar.
Both stories were denied and neither of it happened. In fact, Khalid was at the time chairing a meeting and Iskandar said he was not taking over as Menteri Besar.
Then a meeting of state legislators was called, apparently by Azmin Ali, and all but two of the PAS assembly persons boycotted it. Then it was announced that PAS did not actually boycott the meeting. The party’s representatives just did not see why they needed to turn up since it was Azmin who called for the meeting, something he had never done before.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak praised Khalid for his “cooperation” with the federal government. Is this the kiss of death? Now PKR can say that it is confirmed that Khalid is working for Barisan Nasional and not for Pakatan Rakyat and that would explain his decisions regarding the water and toll highway issues.
The PKR party election is in an absolute mess. But that is only because the tussle between the Khalid faction and the Azmin faction has been “taken to the ground”. The party election is a war between these two factions and it is a violent war, with fisticuffs, bloodshed and broken heads.
It has come to the stage where it is impossible for the two factions to coexist in PKR. One has to go if there ever is going to be peace in the party again. And if this is not settled by the winner taking all and the loser losing all, the next general election will see them battling and sabotaging each other, to the detriment of Pakatan Rakyat and at the risk of losing Selangor to Barisan Nasional.
PAS and DAP knows this. And that is why they want this war resolved. But they do not know how to help bring about a resolution other than by supporting the Azmin faction in kicking out Khalid.
