‘Surat pedas Anwar’ my foot! What Anwar’s fooking letter failed to mention (part 1)
The Third Force
If Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim were to be granted one wish by a genie, it wouldn’t be to walk out of jail a free man – he knows, as do we all, that some things can never be unscrewed the way you unscrew a light bulb.
Instead, the PKR de facto chief would beg for another wish, after which he would beg for another, and another, and yet another, etc. You see, Anwar is in the business of forestalling, meaning, he is prone to meaningless theatrics in order to delay a decision, until he’s sure that the decision would best serve his interest.
That said, once he does make up his mind, he would probably wish for Azmin Ali to be wiped off the map, perhaps even turned into a dog or a mule. And that’s not too difficult to fathom once you realise how he lacks the right-sized nuts to tell Azmin just how much he hates the latter’s guts.
The fact that Anwar hates Azmin is nothing new – not, at least, to many of Anwar’s affiliates and those within his inner circles. They had long known that Azmin had some kind of a cryptic hold on Anwar, to the point that the latter dared not publically chastise the former. Some say it has to do with Anwar’s darkest secrets, which Azmin knew about. Others say it concerns a corruption scandal both were involved in. The truth is, it is a little of this and a little of that and a whole lot more of something else nobody has a clue of.
Notwithstanding the scandals and the secrets, it was something that took place towards the end of August in 2014 that stretched the hate bar to the point of no return. Around then, Anwar came to know that Azmin was promised the job of Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) of Malaysia by none other than Tun Dr. Mahathir Muhammad himself.
Surprised? Well, don’t let that shock you. Remember this always – Azmin is just as big a Machiavellian as Mahathir is – a scheming, hypocritical and manipulative rogue who would do anything to ensure that his insidious plots are never derailed and that he gets what he wants. And that is partly why Anwar hates Azmin – the latter reminded him more and more of his former boss, Mahathir.
It was the 28th of August, to be precise – Anwar got a line from sources he consorted with from abroad that a coup he had meticulously plotted against the federal government with Rafizi Ramli was about to be hijacked by Azmin and Tun Dr. Mahathir Muhammad. Upon learning this, both Anwar and Azmin got into a very heated and bitter quarrel, which left the two with bruised egos. Neither Anwar’s wife nor the PKR top leadership knew of this quarrel – but somebody always knows, and somebody always talks.
Around then – and brace yourselves for this – Anwar tried desperately to contact Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim through the latter’s private secretary, Haji Mustapha bin Mohd Talib. Khalid had then just recently submitted his letter of resignation as Selangor Menteri Besar (MB) when Haji Mustapha got a phone call from Anwar.
At one point during the conversation, Anwar asked Haji Mustapha if Khalid would consider staying put as MB. It seems that when the question was put before Khalid, the shocked former MB got pissed and more or less told Haji Mustapha to tell Anwar to fook off. Basically, Khalid told Haji Mustapha that he wasn’t interested in whatever it was Anwar had to sell.
At this juncture, you must be going “a-ha! So Anwar never really wanted Khalid to hand over the reins of government to Azmin.” And that’s true, in a sense – Anwar had another think in the lead up to Azmin’s inauguration and wanted Khalid to stay on as MB.
But that’s not the shocker – the surprise comes when you discover how Anwar had hoodwinked his own wife along with the rest of Pakatan Rakyat into believing that she was once the incontrovertible MB-designate. The truth is – and to Kak Jijah, if you’re reading this – prior to the 28th of August 2014, your husband had no intention of seeing you rise anywhere between the headless chicken you already are and a featherless chicken in a steaming pot of soup.
So the question remains – why all the drama? What incentive was there for Anwar to take his wife and the rest of Pakatan Rakyat on a jolly good joyride?
To answer that, we would first have to travel back in time to the month of October in 2012. Around then, several of Anwar’s trusted affiliates and lawyers had clearly marked on their calendars a definite conviction ahead, telling Anwar that the government’s appeal to have him convicted for sodomy would sound the death toll to his political career.
The long and short of it is this – by October 2012, Anwar was told he stood a cat in hell’s chance of becoming the next Selangor MB.
It was then that the PKR de facto chief conjured the idea of stirring a revolt against Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak’s administration right after the 13th general elections. Anwar believed that by using Selangor’s coffers to bankroll the assault, he would be able to avert a conviction on the basis that UMNO would be forced into negotiations towards a unity government once the country was relegated to chaos.
The thing is, Anwar, being the former DPM and all, knew better than anyone in Pakatan Rakyat that a coup against the government, however well organised or received, would stumble upon a wall – he knew about the pacts the federal government had with its Siamese and Indonesian counterparts, and that the federal government could rely on assistance from the Thai King and Indonesia in case things ever got out of hand. In short, he knew that there was no such thing as a successful ‘Malaysian spring’ or a forced takeover of Putrajaya by Pakatan Rakyat.
So the coup plot had nothing to do with a hostile takeover – Anwar had in his head the idea that Dato’ Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi would somehow agree for him to be made DPM in a quid pro quo arrangement that would see PKR sanctioning a Zahid led government. Of course, Zahid knew none of what was going on in Anwar’s little head.
Once Anwar had the plan roughly figured out, he took off to meet Kit Siang some time in October or November – the two began discussing Selangor in great depth, agreeing that the road to Putrajaya was bedevilled by Khalid’s unyielding popularity in the state. Not having the faintest idea how much was needed to finance a coup plot against Najib, Anwar put the estimate at RM80 million – a figure he would later discover wasn’t that far off the mark. But neither he nor Kit Siang believed that the ever so prudent Khalid would allow state funds to be channelled for the so-called coup attempt.
Realising this, the duo pandered to throw Khalid ‘under the bus’ to pave the way for an Azmin led state government. By then, Anwar had met Azmin and promised him the post of MB, assuring him that a plan was afoot to stump Khalid’s chances at being re-elected during polls. Secretly, however, he told the senior Lim that Wan Azizah would contest a by-election and trigger an uprising against Azmin in the event that he was sent to jail.
So in short, Anwar never really trusted Azmin, but was forced to promise him the post of MB – Azmin had Anwar at gunpoint with a vault full of the latter’s dirty secrets, including one that told of a sex scandal only the duo were privy to.
Complicated, isn’t it? And it gets worse (or better, depending on your bias).
Kit Siang saw that Anwar had a jail term written all over him, which is when he decided that if anyone were to lead Selangor, it would have to be a headless chicken. And guess who immediately came to his mind? If your guess is Wan Azizah, you’re spot on!
Kit Siang knew that he would be able to twirl Anwar’s wife around his little finger. By then, it bothered him that DAP assemblypersons didn’t have as much brains as they were drama artists like Penang’s own ‘Dramasamy’. Ean Yong Hian and V. Ganapathi Rao weren’t in the know of legislative and land matters, and neither were the better half of DAP legislators.
As a matter of fact, DAP legislators in Selangor were just as easily made monkeys by the likes of Dato’ Iskandar Abdul Samad and Dr. Ahmad Yunus of PAS as they were by Khalid, the MB himself. With that in retrospect, Kit Siang went along with Anwar’s plan and began to contemplate ways to deny Khalid the chance of being re-elected during the polls.
As the story goes, deliberations between Anwar and the senior Lim ended with the agreement that Khalid would contest the Port Klang seat, and that the latter would only be notified at the eleventh hour of the decision. Kit Siang argued that no amount of spanners thrown in Ijok could break the synergy between Khalid and his constituents, and that it would be better for PKR and DAP to sabotage the former MB’s campaign in Port Kelang instead. Anwar agreed.
I’ll get back to you on the element of sabotage and what transpired thereafter in an upcoming series (separate from this one). Suffice to say, the Port Kelang manoeuvre fell flat on its ass and led to Khalid being reinstated as Selangor MB. And that proved to be a cause for great concern to Anwar, Azmin and Kit Siang.
To be continued…
