MB’s post – tonight’s the night

The political drama over the Selangor Mentri Besar post will climax tonight when the PKR supreme council decides on who will take over from Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.

Joceline Tan, The Star

By the end of tonight, Selangorians will have a clearer idea of who their next Mentri Besar will be.

The PKR supreme council is meeting late tonight to decide who will replace Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim in the hot seat.

If Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim gets his way, the meeting will endorse only one name, namely his wife and PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

But if the group, aligned to deputy president Azmin Ali, gets its way, two names will be put forward – Dr Wan Azizah and Azmin.

The battle line is clearly drawn and there is every likelihood that tonight’s meeting could be quite argumentative, perhaps even stormy, because at stake is the most powerful post in Selangor, a seat that politicians fantasise about.

PKR elected representatives from all over the country have also been invited to attend even though they have no voting rights. But their opinion could make a difference.

Anwar has been working furiously to position his wife as the sole candidate.

The party’s political bureau meeting on Wednesday had reportedly proposed Dr Wan Azizah as the candidate after deciding that Khalid must go. The irony was that the meeting was held in the Mentri Besar’s official residence although Khalid did not attend.

There have been conflicting versions about the discussions at the political bureau meeting. Anwar’s version is that Dr Wan Azizah was the overall choice with one or two dissenting voices.

Another version claimed that there were questions why Azmin was not considered and it was pointed out that only the PKR supreme council had the power to decide on who should be nominated for the top post.

Anwar has since argued that the choice of Dr Wan Azizah is to facilitate “stability” among the different PKR factions in Selangor. The implication is that she is a unifying figure in the party and Pakatan Rakyat in Selangor.

Azmin’s supporters are not taking the “stability” storyline lying down. It is understood that incoming vice-president Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin is planning to argue the case on behalf of Azmin, who is in Mecca and will only be back by Hari Raya.

Incidentally, Shamsul, who, has a reputation as a giant-killer after defeating Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam in Bukit Katil, was the one who had pushed for Khalid to be replaced at a supreme council meeting back in January.

Azmin’s supporters have argued that nominating two names will help balance the interests of the respective groups in the party and it is up to the Palace to choose between the two.

This is probably what Anwar wants to avoid at all costs. By now, it is an open secret that the Sultan and the religious bodies in the state are not comfortable with the idea of a woman Mentri Besar.

Anwar is a man in a hurry. He wants to execute the change before his final sodomy appeal comes up for hearing. Having his wife as the Mentri Besar will lend his case extra leverage on the international front because it can be portrayed as the courts trying to undermine him and his wife and, by association, the Selangor government.

There is also talk that PAS, which is also not keen on having a woman on top, will be pacified with a deputy Mentri Besar post.

Anwar needs to push this through before the party congress next month when the newly-elected supreme council will come into operation.

Anwar’s grand design would not stand a chance under the new line-up which is packed with Azmin’s allies. Shamsul and Dr Xavier Jayakumar, both of whom are aligned to Azmin, won two of the four vice-president posts.

The new AMK chief Amiruddin Shari and Wanita chief Zuraidah Kamaruddin are also Azmin loyalists. On top of that, more than half of the 20 supreme council seats went to his men. There is no way that they would have stomached their man being sidelined again.

The other question is whether Khalid will make way without a fuss. Those around him said that he would be less reluctant to go if Dr Wan Azizah is the replacement. But he would not be able to accept Azmin taking over because there is too much bad blood between them.

“If Tan Sri agrees to the move, I hope everyone will give him a dignified exit,” said his political secretary Azman Abidin.

The would-be contenders for the coveted Selangor job have been keeping a rather low profile. Dr Wan Azizah has preferred to let her husband do all the talking and the politicking.

Azmin, on his part, tweeted a photograph of himself praying in a cave in Medina. He is playing the sympathy card, portraying himself as the victim in this massive struggle for ascendancy.

But it would be a mistake to underestimate Anwar. Those familiar with him said he has the charisma and wiles to get what he wants. They had seen him play political tai chi when husband and wife put up their names for the presidency to block Azmin from going for the top post.

He is known as a politician who bucks the trend and that is what makes him so exciting to watch. He does not always play by the rules and, in the case of the Mentri Besar post, he is seen as shifting the goal posts in favour of his wife.

Tonight is the night.