Ezam’s and Nurul’s Jakarta escapades
The Third Force
Talk about the proverbial idiom Musuh dalam selimut, or the closest Biblical equivalent, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Yes, all that came to mind as I chanced upon a recent posting by Badrul Hisham Shaharin, better known to many as CheguBard (let’s just call him Bard). Skimming through the article, the name Dato’ Seri Azmin Ali immediately caught my attention.
Last Thursday, the 3rd of October 2016, Bard entered in his blog a seven-point cautionary statement against Azmin, advising PKR President Datin Seri Dr. Wan Azizah and her daughter, Nurul Izzah Anwar, to heed the advances of forces he claimed were aligned to Azmin. According to Bard, these forces presented a clear and present danger as they were seeking to corrupt the party.
The gist to the seven-point statement was summed up in the seventh and concluding point itself, wherein which Bard spoke of a conspiracy that existed between Dr. Mahathir Mohammad and Azmin to wrest control of PKR. According to Bard, Azmin’s ‘cartel’ was financing a scheme by the former premier and his men to turn the party against its president.
Do you know what I think?
I think Bard got the whole plot upside down. If anyone is doing the paying, it most certainly isn’t Azmin. I am told that the current Menteri Besar of Selangor wouldn’t even pay for his morning cup of coffee should you happen to be at breakfast with him. So you can be sure that the man doing the paying is Mahathir.
Still, what Bard touched on last Thursday was nothing we at Malaysia Today have yet to publish. As a matter of fact, we were the first to issue the red alert on plans by Mahathir to have Wan Azizah and her daughter swept out of PKR together with the rest of the trash. There is a lot we have told you, and a lot more we have yet to say.
For instance, did you know that Mahathir went so far as to suggest that a statutory declaration supporting Azmin as party president be circulated among PKR leaders? Did you also know that the idea was shot down by the Selangor Menteri Besar himself?
Now, do you know why?
Well, Azmin knew it was risky business. He knew that many party heavyweights had not forgiven him for playing it dirty during Langkah Kajang. The writings on the wall told him that getting such a declaration circulated was a slow process, and that slow processes often gave room for the enemy to strategise.
Yes, Azmin is quite the manipulator. He knows these things.
Back during the days of Langkah Kajang, Azmin negotiated for the post of Selangor Menteri Besar. His name was then included alongside those of Dato’ Iskandar Abdul Samad and Dato’ Dr Ahmad Yunus Khairi, two state EXCOs from PAS that Dato’ Seri Abdul Hadi Awang had approved as nominees for the post of Menteri Besar.
Both Iskandar and Dr Ahmad Yunus turned down the post of Menteri Besar when met separately by the ruler. Yunus argued that Iskandar was the rightful benefactor as the latter was the senior. Iskandar, on the other hand, rejected the offer outright, stating that his ‘sacrifice’ would help preserve the peace within the opposition coalition. Now, was there peace in the opposition coalition following Azmin’s inauguration as Menteri Besar?
No.
As a matter of fact, things got worse. Anwar got to know that Azmin had lobbied for the post of MB behind his back. But that was not as bad as what Anwar’s sources discovered much later. According to them, Azmin was in cahoots with Mahathir and the latter’s cohorts all along to prevent Wan Azizah or any PAS representative from becoming the next Menteri Besar of Selangor.
Do you now get the picture how cunning this Azmin fellow is? He knew that the spotlight was on Anwar and Hadi, that the media was least concerned about him. He knew that being out of the spotlight meant he had the currency to inveigle a free pass into the ruler’s good books. Likewise, he knew that circulating a statutory declaration naming him as party president was akin to taking a gun and shooting himself in his foot.
So yeah, this Azmin fellow is definitely a smooth operator.
Going back to Bard’s article, I have the strangest feeling that he came to know of a secret plot both Mahathir and Azmin are currently working on. So secretive is the plot, Mahathir made absolutely sure there would be no way in hell Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) or I would get to know of it. But that’s where the old man got it wrong – he should know by now that we at Malaysia Today hear everything, that nothing escapes us.
For instance, I can tell you for a fact that the former premier has been complaining to his wife of mild chest pains. I can also tell you what Dato’ Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan spoke to Mahathir a little over a week ago when the duo met at the latter’s residence in the wee hours of the morning. But we’ll leave that part out for an upcoming article.
The point is, I think Bard knows what I already know. Perhaps, he has been told that Azmin and his men have been working in the shadows these past two weeks to solicit support from party members, the minimum required to trigger an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM). Perhaps, he already knows that Mahathir is funding the initiative, that the EGM is slated for December or latest by January next year.
Yes, I have the strangest feeling Bard already knows. If Wan Azizah were smart, she would heed Bard’s caution, as the guy said it right two years ago when he accused Azmin of lobbying the Palace for the post of Menteri Besar.
On the 13th of September 2014, Bard told a press conference that Azmin had pulled a massive public stunt aimed at misleading Wan Azizah and Anwar. According to him, Azmin pretended to support her candidacy for the post of Menteri Besar despite having negotiated a nomination for himself behind her back.
“The public has to know that he lobbied to be MB in secret, which is the cause of PKR (and) PR chaos in Selangor,” he said, adding, “From the beginning, he has dreamed of the Selangor MB post.”
But what did the truth get Bard?
The axe.
Two years later, on the 22nd of August 2016, Bard was given fourteen days to appeal a decision by the PKR disciplinary committee that saw fit to sack him from the party. Over what, we were never really made to understand. However, it had become public knowledge by then that Azmin was pissed off with Bard for accusing him of sabotaging the party during and after the 13th general election.
But did Azmin really sabotage the party?
You bet he did. Not many know that Azmin and Anwar were involved in a massive conspiracy along with Lim Kit Siang, Tian Chua and several other PKR and DAP leaders to sabotage Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s chances of winning the Port Kelang state seat. The conspiracy involved electoral machineries that were said to have walloped funds from Khalid’s personal coffers without even mobilising teams to campaign for him. But that is something I will talk about in more detail at a later date.
What is more important is for us to understand what this Azmin fellow has turned into. While Anwar and Khalid were busy ripping each other’s ego apart during Langkah Kajang, Azmin slipped beneath the shadows and plotted against Wan Azizah. Then, as Anwar, Rafizi Ramli and Saifuddin Nasution got busy hatching plots towards a Wan Azizah-led dictatorship in Selangor, Azmin quietly worked out a scheme to ‘buy’ several state reps out.
And not many know that while Anwar, Kit Siang and Tian Chua were busy sabotaging Khalid in Port Klang, Azmin was busy sabotaging Dr Idris Ahmad’s chances of securing the Ijok state seat. Surprised?
Yes, this Azmin is a dangerous man. His strategy has always been to turn his competitors against themselves. It was he who fuelled Anwar’s fury against Khalid when the latter refused to resign as Menteri Besar of Selangor. It was he who first whispered to Anwar the idea of using Selangor’s coffers to finance a march towards Putrajaya, knowing well in advance that Khalid would never support such an idea. He did all that because he knew better than anyone, that a party divided is a party conquered.
And Azmin’s plan has all along been to conquer PKR.
Now do you understand why Nurul Izzah Anwar sought the services of her love interest, Dato’ Ezam Mohd Nor, to trigger a crisis in Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Pribumi)? Nurul knows how dangerous this Azmin fellow is. She knows what Bard knows, that both Azmin and Mahathir are plotting to trigger an EGM in PKR. She knows that the duo is dead serious in getting her and her mother, Wan Azizah, swept out of the party for good.
But what good is Ezam to her?
Well, months ago, Ezam founded the Hisbah Centre for Reform (HCR) in Jakarta, established primarily to siphon as much funds as it could from Mahathir through Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. Just so that you know, Muhyiddin is not the Mahathirist you think he is. As a matter of fact, he is sick and tired of being labelled a Mahathirist. He knows as well as I do that he is nothing more than a dog on the former premier’s leash.
That said, the HRC doesn’t only get its funds from Muhyiddin. The establishment also serves as a ‘money sink’, through which millions and millions are siphoned from a “Habibie-related NGO” and an American source. I am told, the HCR has in its reserves approximately RM250 million, maybe more.
So yeah, HCR is mighty rich, and so is Ezam. That may be one reason why Nurul seems head over heels in love with him. The setting up of the HCR in Jakarta was quite the brilliant ruse to keep hidden their illicit affair. While everyone is told that the NGO was established to expand and turn viral the hype surrounding 1MDB, Nurul gets to run into Ezam’s arms every once in a while with all expenses paid by Muhyiddin.
And as usual, her mother knows none of this. She thinks that her daughter’s trips to Jakarta are innocent, meant only to assist Ezam and the HCR plot against Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak and the Malaysian government. Did I not tell you that Wan Azizah is a headless chicken?
She is, because she’s too dumb to see what goes on beneath the shadows and the sheets, the way she ‘missed out’ on the fun that went on between Anwar and his many ‘victims’. Do you know what she asked her aide when news of an alleged homosexual encounter between Anwar and Saiful broke the internet?
“Where was I when all this happened?”
Yes, she asked that.
And isn’t it strange that she should now go running to Siti Hasmah seeking an allegiance in the name of her jailed hubby? Has she forgotten how she ran to Hasmah some years back with complaints of the ‘abuse’ she suffered in her bedroom?
Oh yes. I know about that too.
