Dark cloud over MB’s post
(The Sun Daily) – The Monday press conference by PKR supremo Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was held so late – around midnight – that some newspapers missed the story.
Emerging from a PKR supreme council meeting, Anwar said the party leadership had endorsed his wife, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is PKR president, to become the next Selangor mentri besar to replace Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.
He even said the party leadership agreed that Dr Wan Azizah was the “best person” and the “most suitable leader” who could provide stability in Selangor.
Plenty of questions can be asked of Anwar within the party leadership circle on how he could justify this “best person and most suitable leader” description of his wife for the MB’s job but being the political animal that he is, I doubt if anyone at the meeting had done so.
It’s an open secret that Anwar had himself wanted to be the Selangor MB, the most coveted post any Pakatan Rakyat leader can aspire to hold in the three states under their control now.
He tried to do this by forcing a by-election in Kajang in March in which he was to be a candidate but was disqualified on the eve of nomination day when the Court of Appeal found him guilty of sodomy.
Those among us who would have thought that it was end of the matter and especially Khalid, who heaved a huge sigh of relief that his job was safe, were all proven wrong.
Even for PKR deputy president Azmin Ali, said to command the support of DAP and PAS should there be a change of the Selangor MB, his hopes of landing the job evaporated when at the party election, Anwar, once again, engineered a move which ended up in his wife being elected unopposed as party president, the post which Azmin was eyeing.
All for the purpose of achieving the objective of what Anwar finally announced at that midnight press conference – that if he himself can’t be MB, then no one else but his wife should.
Changing Khalid as the MB at mid-stream or just one year into his second-term is a self-imposed issue created out of nothing if we care to ask the opinion of the man in the street. They would tell you that Selangor has had a very strong government in the last six years since Pakatan toppled the Barisan Nasional in the country’s richest state. The industrial hub accounts for some 25% of our gross national product.
Pakatan strengthened its grip in last year’s general election by having far more than just a two-thirds majority, thanks to voters’ acceptance of Khalid’s style of leadership that does away with what’s widely known in the country as “crony capitalism” or awarding of sweet projects or tenders to political cronies with a stroke of a pen.
It’s this style and the integrity of the man that have unsettled many in the Pakatan inner circles or corridors of power who are disgusted that they or their supporters have not benefited from the spoils or power.
Khalid has admitted that he’s frugal in spending the state’s money, unlike his predecessors, and often cited the fact that since he became MB, Selangor has accumulated a healthy few billion ringgit in reserves, even adding that his mother had always advised him to be stingy.
But Khalid, who was a corporate leader, remains resolute and undeterred by those who are trying to pull the carpet from under his feet.
Yes, in a way he runs Selangor like a corporate entity where politics is not part of the equation and where his accountability is to the company’s shareholders and for this many feel that he’s been too sluggish in adjusting to being CEO of a state where politics and nothing else seems to matter.
Anwar, in trying to justify the move to replace Khalid had said: “The performance of Selangor has been exemplary and while we appreciate Khalid’s services, we also feel that extra measures have to be taken to solve issues causing anxiety among the people.
“At the same time, we want to solve long-standing problems that have plagued the people of Selangor, namely water shortages,the Kidex (Kinrara-Damansara Expressway) and basic infrastructure.”
One very senior Pakatan leader, when asked why he, too, wanted to see Khalid replaced, told me: “He’s not a team player.”
Khalid would have been able to contain all this except perhaps for the fact that the man trying to pull that carpet from under his feet is not Azmin but Anwar who made no secret of the fact that he wanted to take over as MB but for the court decision.
During his tenure as deputy prime minister and finance minister, Anwar regarded Khalid as his blue-eyed boy when the latter was CEO of Guthrie, where under a management buy-out, Khalid was granted a 7% stake in the plantation giant.
Despite the circumstances under which attempts to depose Khalid are being made, the rakyat hold no grudge against Dr Wan Azizah being proposed as the MB. The women would love it.
Except for the inevitable notion that Anwar, despite holding no official PKR post recognised by the Registrar or Societies, is calling all the shots in the party.
Wan Azizah would be too much of a “puppet MB”, not so much she doesn’t have the experience of a high public office or whatever, but it will be Anwar who will be pulling the strings.
Utusan Malaysia, the staunchly pro-Umno newspaper, has come out strongly in support of Khalid to remain as MB until his term ends and calling Wan Azizah a “puppet president”.
I spoke to some prominent businessmen who are concerned about a possible change of MB in Selangor and regard Khalid, despite his shortcomings, as still the best man for the job among all leaders in Pakatan.
They warned that the political instability that would follow a change of MB at this time would serve no logical purpose and would be bad for the economy, both within the state and beyond.
Khalid has insisted that he won’t simply quit and does not feel slighted about attempts to replace him, brushing the issue off as “part of politics”.
Utusan Malaysia in its Sunday edition Mingguan Malaysia makes a lot of sense when it tells Khalid: “Keep leading Tan Sri. The people are with you”.
