‘Short sleeves, long pants MB’

Azmin Ali will hit the ground running as Selangor Mentri Besar but his toughest challenge is to match the clean record set by his predecessor.

Joceline Tan, The Star

THE evening before Azmin Ali was due to take his oath as the new Selangor Mentri Besar, he was informed that he could use the official Mentri Besar car to go to the Palace the next morning.

But he told the state officials he would be using his own car, a black Toyota Camry, and that he would start using the official car only after he was sworn in.

Azmin wanted to make a proper start to his new duties as Mentri Besar and those around him said he has been quite particular about separating the official from the private.

It has been a momentous week for the PKR deputy president. For a while, it seemed like the Mentri Besar post would elude him again but his time had finally come.

Some say that good things come to those who are patient. But it was more like Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was not meant to be the one or, as the Malays are so fond of saying, bukan rezeki dia .

Earlier, opinion polls had seen Azmin trailing other would-be Mentri Besar candidates. He has an image problem and he has to correct the perception. But the seat of power carries an aura of its own and there has been a media frenzy over the new Mentri Besar. A great deal of it is because of the crisis leading up to his appointment, which is seen as a resolution to the months of high drama politicking.

Some of it also has to do with the fact that, unlike some of his colleagues, Azmin has quite good ties with the media even though his party has a ban on several media outlets. It also has to do with the fact that at 50, he comes from that generation which takes a keen interest in political issues.

He also has a photogenic family. His wife Shamshida Taharin is a sultry beauty, their three daughters take after her, their two younger sons are still in school, and the eldest son towers over everyone.

Many were surprised to learn that the family of nine, including his mother-in-law, lived quite moderately in a three-storey terraced house.

Those who followed the live telecast of his oath-taking were impressed by how he carried himself – his composure, the perfect diction and just the right touch of deference for Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah and respect for the occasion.

Azmin did not miss a beat on his first day as Mentri Besar.

The ceremonial keris was still snugly tucked into the waist of his kain sampingwhen he arrived at his mother’s house to seek her blessings. Mother and son fed each other pulut kuning as the media crowd squeezed into the cosy living room with quaint furniture and funky lime-green walls.

On the way there, he stopped to perform zohor prayers at the mosque where those present invited him to lead the prayers as the imam.

Azmin has since said that he intends to be a Mentri Besar who works in “short sleeves and long pants”. It is his way of saying he will be a hands-on, no-frills chief executive.

“His mind is already on what he has to do. He is ready for the challenge,” said deputy PKR Youth chief and Penang executive councillor Dr Afif Bahardin.

Azmin has waited a long time for this. He was sidelined in 2008 and again in 2013. In hindsight, the delay has been a maturing and humbling experience. It has made him less brash and more mellowed, less pushy and more patient. It has rounded out the sharp edges in his personality.

“He has been ready for a long time. I’ve seen his progress, he has improved his understanding of issues and people,” said Lee Chin Cheh, whose resignation paved the way for the Kajang by-election.

Azmin will have to hit the ground running. If he stumbles, it will be because of sabotage from his own party people who had wanted Dr Wan Azizah as Mentri Besar.

“These guys still have scores to settle. I don’t see them giving up,” said a Penang lawyer.

Moreover, as the lawyer noted, there has been no outpouring of congratulations for Azmin from PKR and DAP leaders. They are still unhappy that their candidate Dr Wan Azizah was overlooked despite having the majority support from Pakatan assemblymen.

Party sources said Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim came to accept that it was going to be Azmin much earlier than his inner circle.

The relationship between mentor and mentee has been rocky over the last one year. Anwar had blocked Azmin from contesting the party presidency and had even backed secretary-general Datuk Saifuddin Nasution to go against Azmin.

The man who groomed him also tried to do him in. But Azmin has given his former mentor a lot of face in the run-up to his appointment. He has taken the trouble to brief Anwar about each development before bringing it to the party’s political bureau.

“He would have preferred Kak Wan but he understands the situation,” said Lee.

Anwar did keep his word to propose Azmin if Dr Wan Azizah failed to get it. At a crucial party meeting the night before Azmin was sworn in, Anwar stated the case for Azmin so that the party could move on while expressing his unhappiness about the way his wife was treated.

Some joked that he had to do that or else there would be no pillow talk, but a pillow fight, when he got home.

That is what happens when there is no definite line between family and politics. Vice-president Nurul Izzah knows exactly how it feels – if she endorsed her mother, she would be seen as supporting nepotism but if she endorsed Azmin, she would come across as unfilial.

Anwar let vice-presidents Rafizi Ramli and Tian Chua do the barking during the meeting as the pair pushed for a press statement that was less about endorsing Azmin than a critique of the role of the Palace. The statement they crafted was very embarrassing for Azmin.

But the husband and wife pair kept up appearances and smiled broadly as they emerged from the meeting.

Anwar, looking handsome and trendy in a pink shirt, held Azmin’s hands with both of his own as they posed for the cameras. But, for some reason, Dr Wan Azizah’s hands were shaking and she quickly slipped one hand into her tote bag while holding onto her husband with the other.

There is no denying that Dr Wan Azizah’s image has been dented by the Selangor crisis.

It is natural for a politician to aspire for power but the ouster of Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim did not reflect well on her. He had helped her family when they were down but she had helped to knock him down with trumped up charges of abuse of power and sacked him via kangaroo court tactic.

The warm farewell that the state civil servants gave Khalid on his last day showed they did not believe a shred of the accusations against him.

Khalid left for Australia to visit his daughter on the morning Azmin was sworn in. He was not going to hang around with the “snakes”, the term his supporters use for those who plotted his downfall.

He described himself as a casualty of the “personal desire of someone and his cronies” in a farewell interview with Astro Awani. He said his priorities were always the people’s interests but, unfortunately, PKR was still “trapped in old-style politics”.

Anyway, Khalid had one last laugh when his former political secretary Faekah Husin announced that the Selangor government had terminated Anwar’s services as the state economic adviser. PKR’s big man was retrenched, so to speak.

The Selangor crisis has damaged Pakatan Rakyat. The fissures in PAS were played out during its recent muktamar while DAP suffered collateral damage.

Rightly or wrongly, many Malays see DAP as the instigator. The signal going out to the average Malay is: Today they challenge our Sultan, tomorrow they will challenge the position of the Malays and who knows what else the day after tomorrow?

Azmin was the under-dog in the bid to replace Khalid. He was decorous, he did not join in the demonisation of Khalid and he eventually emerged as the chosen one.

He is no greenhorn when it comes to the government. Azmin has some experience because he was part of the government from 1987 to 1998 as an aide and private secretary to Anwar.

He worked in several ministries with Anwar when the latter held portfolios in Youth and Sports, Education, Finance and finally the Deputy Prime Minister’s office.

Azmin is familiar with the running of government, has knowledge of how the system works and understands the civil servant culture. He knows how to pull the levers and he will not give the civil servants trouble the way Khalid had problems with the civil service in his early years.

His years in PKR honed him in handling the party warlords while becoming one himself. He has fought many battles but his toughest was the most recent party election where he had to take on the powers-that-be in PKR to hold on to his deputy president post.

Umno had better be afraid in Selangor.

Khalid was the cleanest Mentri Besar Selangor has had in years. Azmin’s challenge is to match Khalid’s clean reputation.