Never a dull day in Pakatan’s trial by fire
The chaos in Selangor is keeping the nation waiting with bated breath as PAS decides the fate of Pakatan and the future of Selangorians
Ishmael Lim, Free Malaysia Today
A lot can be said about Malaysian politics. Dramatic, hypocritical, dishonest and dirty are adjectives that instantly spring to mind, but what it surely isn’t is `dull’.
Selangor watchers have been on tenterhooks since de-facto PR leader Anwar Ibrahim, proposed the candidacy of Dr.Wan Azizah to replace incumbent Menteri Besar (MB), Khalid Ibrahim.
Nothing sinister in this since Wan Azizah is the president of PKR, and state assemblywoman for Kajang, which makes her eligible. But let us not forget that she is also the wife of Anwar.
Simply put PKR has decided that Selangor needs a new MB to replace the current one and has the right to nominate whomever they wish under their agreement with Pakatan components DAP and PAS.
This would normally happen at the beginning of a five-year mandate or incapacity of the current MB due to illness, death or criminal conviction. But this time it is none of the above.
What’s the problem since its only intra-party musical-chairs, you may well ask? Well Khalid who has some hefty support, just won’t give it up without a fight.
In his corner are the Sultan representing Islam and royalty, UMNO representing the Malays and the big business, and tentatively PAS representing Islam and the Malays (although they would say they are for all).
How this scenario will pan out is anyone’s guess.
This Selangor issue should rightly be a contained Selangor event, but its fallout will have national consequences. This stems from the fact that the six-year-old state government is perceived by the Malaysian electorate as the test model for Pakatan’s nationwide cooperation should they ever wrest Putrajaya from Barisan National.
If Pakatan cannot solve this political imbroglio amicably, then what hope have they of running the federal politics of this nation?
This is the ultimate test of Pakatan’s sustainability. All the ingredients for a trial by fire are in this mixture. Religion, racism, royalty, big business, corruption, cronyism and mismanagement are all present.
I seriously doubt if most of the issues can be resolved by a mere change of MB, as many of these convoluted problems were inherent in the system even before Pakatan components ever dreamed of ruling the state.
It is yet to be seen if PAS will recognise that this crisis is really the struggle of one man who is crossing party lines to save his own skin and hoping that the opposing giants will slug it out on his behalf.
PKR and DAP have already declared their position in no uncertain terms and rightly assume that PAS should honour the agreement regarding PKR’s privilege to appoint Dr.Wan Azizah to the MB’s post.
I see no reason to doubt Dr.Wan Azizah’s potential to fill Khalid’s void. Legal and business technocrats can be enlisted to help with the nitty-gritty of management while she focuses on policy matters and ethical compliance.
In any case,`policy’ cannot be hers to shoulder alone, as PKR should and must, collectively decide these matters with coalition partners DAP and PAS.
Building bridges with her subordinates and other state agencies will be hard work but she brings a clean slate with her and no chink in her armour like Khalid’s 66 million ringgit question mark.
The first course of action should she take office, would be to dispel any hint of corruption and scandal with regards to the acquisition costs of Selangor’s water assets.
