Lukewarm congress with empty seats

The power struggle over the Selangor mentri besar post and problematic party election has affected the mood of delegates attending the PKR annual congress.

Joceline Tan, The Star

TODAY will be Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail’s big moment on the PKR stage.

The PKR president will be making her presidential address with the knowledge that the delegates will be looking at her as the next possible mentri besar of Selangor.

Dr Wan Azizah is eager to replace Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim in the coveted top job.

Her vice-president daughter Nurul Izzah Anwar, who had been very quiet on the mentri besar power struggle, has broken her silence.

Nurul Izzah, who officiated at the party’s Wanita congress in Shah Alam yesterday, gave her mother her stamp of approval.

The willowy beauty said her mother had juggled duties as a mum and politician and her sense of empathy would make her a better mentri besar than Khalid. Anyway, what else can a daughter say about her mother?

Meanwhile, deputy president Azmin Ali, who officiated at the Youth congress, chose to be the nice guy. He ignored the elephant in the room and skirted issues such as the fight over the mentri besar post and the problematic party election which his supporters claimed was manipulated to dilute his growing influence.

He tried to play down the internal party problems as part of the growing pains of democracy, quoting President Barack Obama that “democracy is a noisy process”.

But, everyone sat up when Azmin touched on his vision for Selangor and how the state could realise its full potential to become the best.

It was a hint of his aspirations for the mentri besar office although he quickly qualified it by saying, “God willing, the new administration will have this vision, with Wan Azizah as the nominee for the mentri besar”.

Azmin has not had an easy year. The husband-and-wife power couple conspired to block him from going for the party presidency.

This was followed by attempts to undermine his re-election campaign. More recently, attempts by his supporters to nominate him for the mentri besar post alongside Dr Wan Azizah were thwarted.

Azmin drew on the experience of former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping who survived two purges and is today credited for China’s socialist market economy.

It was evident that delegates at the Youth and Wanita congress were instructed not to focus on the Selangor issue or to criticise the problem-riddled election.

The media people were expecting some fireworks in the debates. But too much soiled laundry had been washed in public the last few months and the speakers went on half-heartedly about the political struggle and democratic process.

There was also an absence of the “blame Umno for everything” syndrome.

The party has finally come down to earth. They no longer command the moral high ground to criticise others after what happened in their party.

They realise now that they have only themselves to blame for the events of the last few months, be it the Kajang Move or the fights and turmoil at the party polls.

The turnout at the Youth and Wanita meetings was not encouraging.

There were lots of empty chairs and a lukewarm mood.

PKR had attracted many young idealistic Malaysians looking for a new brand of politics and they do not like what is happening.

The outcome of the Youth wing election was a case in point.

Batu Caves assemblyman Amirudin Shari, who is aligned to Azmin, thought he had won until last Thursday when the election committee decided to accept the Pensiangan election results which were disputed because the ballots apparently did not tally with the number of voters.

The Pensiangan results allowed Seri Setia assemblyman Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, who is aligned to Rafizi Ramli, to win the Youth leadership or, what some claimed, “enter by the side door”.

Nik Nazmi is now seen as a “Youth chief without a body” because 80% of the line-up are Amirudin’s boys.

He had a foretaste of what lies ahead yesterday.

By the time he took the stage to introduce the new Youth leadership line-up at about 6.30pm, there were more empty chairs than people in the hall.

Then he had to face the humiliating experience of some 15 members of the new Youth exco staging a protest walkout as he made his maiden speech.

The looming by-election in Pengkalan Kubor in Kelantan was also of concern to many in the party.

The by-election could not have come at a worse time, given the frayed PKR-PAS ties.

PKR lost the seat to Umno by more than 1,700 votes and hope of the party wresting back the seat is slim.

In an interview with a news portal, Dr Wan Azizah was appropriately circumspect about the Palace position on the mentri besar issue.

The lady does not exactly stand out as a dynamic leader and very few believe she has the economic know-how needed for a state like Selangor.

But what shone through in the interview was her modesty and decorum.

Hopefully that genteel and modest demeanour will continue to prevail whatever the outcome of the palace decision.

The views expressed are entirely the writer’s own.