Abdul Khalid leaves with image and integrity badly bruised
Zubaidah Abu Bakar, The Rakyat Post
TAN Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim’s days as Menteri Besar has ended.
Once Pakatatan Rakyat’s celebrated Menteri Besar for Selangor, Abdul Khalid, 67, left office with his integrity badly bruised.
No thanks to the protracted Selangor Menteri Besar crisis that forced dirty linen to be aired in full view of the Selangor public, who just a year ago thought highly of Abdul Khalid’s style of administration.
It does not matter if the allegations made by his former party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), from which he was sacked for refusing to follow an order to step down from office, have any truth in them, his image had been badly dented.
Nonetheless, there are still those among the ordinary Selangor folk, civil servants, PKR and PAS members and supporters who do not share the anti-Abdul Khalid sentiment.
They are generally happy with Abdul Khalid as Menteri Besar.
It is highly probable that they have little or no knowledge at all that Abdul Khalid has long been a subject of PKR’s political intrigue where sections in the party claimed he had been mishandling the affairs of the country’s richest state.
That was why people were shocked when the so-called Abdul Khalid’s dirty deeds dossier was made public to support PKR’s decision to remove him from office and party.
The thick dossier, which was also distributed by PKR to PAS and DAP, listed Abdul Khalid’s questionable out-of-court settlement with Bank Islam, Kidex Highway project, Selangor water deal, issues pertaining to the increase of business licence fees in the state as well as potholes and garbage collection as reasons the party wanted Khalid to vacant the coveted seat he had held since 2008.
Not everyone believe these allegations as true.
“I want to congratulate Abdul Khalid, he has done an excellent job. I think one of the best Menteri Besar that Selangor has ever had,” said Cempaka assemblyman Iskandar Abdul Samad to reporters at the state administrative building on Monday.
Iskandar, one of the four PAS’ lawmakers who remained as exco member to help Abdul Khalid run the state after the latter became partyless, also thinks that Selangor was fortunate to have had Abdul Khalid running the state since 2008.
A closer look at recent scenarios showed that most people who have worked directly with Abdul Khalid has a lot of good things to say about the former Menteri Besar; only those with political links to him, including those from PKR, think otherwise and even that, only in the past one year when efforts to oust him from office started.
All could see that Abdul Khalid had tried hard to administer the state as a caretaker MB, assisted by the PAS lawmakers, after his resignation was accepted by Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, but postponed until a replacement had been found.
He is resolved to the fact that he no longer enjoys the majority support of the 56 Selangor state assemblymen.
But Abdul Khalid could also had avoided all these hardship and slander by the anti-Khalid group if had had not resisted his former party’s request for him to make way.
There would not have been the failed Kajang Move, the dossier and other situations that caused a lot of strain in PKR-PAS-DAP relations, which is not about to improve any time soon.
In fact, the situation has already became complicated that it had reach a stage where it is threatening to break the loose political cooperation the three parties had entered just after the 2008 General Election.
In politics, it is not for an appointed leader to decide whether to remain in power.
It is his party, which had chosen him for the post and naturally, he is expected to vacate the position once being told to do so.
Similar situations had occurred before, including those involving several Menteri Besar from Barisan Nasional, the latest was in Terengganu not too long ago.
Their respective exit was not without problems; there were threats to resign as elected representatives and all, but they all came to their senses and left their office to avoid compromising the stability of the state government and their party, like what has happened in Selangor.
The people of Selangor hope to see Pakatan Rakyat move on as soon as the new Menteri Besar is sworn in and his state exco members take their oath of office.
There is still a lot to be done for the state and the people.
