S’gor crisis will determine if Pakatan a serious contender for Putrajaya

By admin-s On Aug 11, 2014

This crisis is only the tip of the iceberg. Going forward, the way the crisis is being handled will determine if Pakatan is a serious contender or not for federal government.

The Ant Daily

The way Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim acted in defiance against his party’s directive to step down and the personal attacks mounted by his party leaders against him are embarrassing and damaging to both parties.

It is an obvious act of disrespect to the people of Selangor, especially to the voters who had supported Pakatan Rakyat overwhelmingly in the last two general elections.

The episode, which is slowly turning into a tardy soap opera, reflects a lack of understanding of the electoral process. Public office is not a private property and hereditary right. To a person assuming a public office, it comes with a duty to serve the public and the state.

The current Selangor leadership crisis has raised two bigger questions that would have to be answered. First, does PKR have the right to replace Khalid as the party’s choice of menteri besar? Second, does Khalid have a right to remain the menteri besar?

Khalid stood in the last general election as a PKR candidate. Although the Malaysian election law recognises his right to represent his state constituency even if Khalid chooses not to associate himself with PKR, his appointment as the menteri besar was made based on the support he enjoys from the state assembly.

The Malaysian political system is partisan centric. Although the law does not bar any individual from standing as a candidate, by convention all state and federal governments were and are governed by political parties and coalitions.

If Khalid refuses to step down after losing the support of his party and with his sacking by PKR yesterday, it will be dysfunctional for him to continue as the menteri besar. It will be almost impossible for the state assembly and the state government to function because Khalid would need a simple majority to remain in his position and would have to appoint his state exco members from among the state assemblymen who are aligned to either Pakatan or Barisan Nasional (BN).

Getting the support of BN, primarily Umno, would be tricky because the coalition might not want to interfere in what is seemingly a short-term gain that would end up infuriating the voters in the longer term. Whatever the outcome, Selangor Pakatan would be facing a daunting task trying to defend its seats in the next general election if the crisis leads to a permanent fallout between PAS, PKR and DAP. It would be smarter for Umno to wait rather than to try capitalising on the fallout.

PKR has a right to demand that Khalid step down midway to be replaced by another candidate of the party’s choice. It is too late to debate if the party has used the right approach to achieve this. It is unfortunate that the party leadership has not learnt from the “Kajang Move” fiasco and allows the same conspirators like Rafizi Ramli to wash dirty linen in public. Rafizi’s dossier on Khalid has confirmed his own status as a politician who would not hesitate to resort to ugly propaganda as a weapon against an opponent.

Khalid has a right to keep his state assembly seat of Port Klang but he does not have a moral right to insist staying on as menteri besar once he losses the support of his party. If Khalid has been a farsighted politician, he would not have insisted to hang on to the position. Politicians do come and go. Some of them do make a comeback, e.g. Kevin Rudd to the top leadership.

It is unfair to demonise Khalid entirely. He had performed admirably during his first term and his leadership was even used as a key selling point during the last general election. The fact that Khalid’s leadership has created so many controversies since the last general election is not entirely his fault too. It is partly caused by a lack of consensus and governance structure within Pakatan.

If Khalid is being reprimanded for abusing his authority and making arbitrary decisions, both Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng should be hauled up as well. Kelantan’s decision to implement the hudud law has irked its partners, especially DAP. PAS leader Nasrudin Hassan’s criticism of Guan Eng on the Penang undersea tunnel is another hot spot. Perhaps, Khalid is feeling bitter for being singled out.