Can you really see the Japanese fan lady as our PM?
By Dr Kamarul Zaman Yusoff, Tanjak
The issue of who should be Malaysia’s prime minister is a tangled knot for the loose alliance that is PPBM and PKR-DAP-PAN.
PPBM chairman Tun Mahathir Mohamad stated in his speech at the University of London on 21 Sept 2016 that should his PPBM-Pakatan coalition win the next general election, their prime minister-designate would be PPBM president Muhyiddin Yassin.
Then, after coming under fire for his presumption, he backpedaled by saying whoever becomes the Perdana Menteri Harapan need not be announced prematurely for fear of upsetting the apple cart.
In actuality, the 13 Dec 2016 agreement of cooperation between Pakatan and PPBM did not say anything about who is their choice as paramount leader. It merely records an electoral pact between the opposition parties in time for the next general election (GE14) with the purpose of forming a new government together should they win.
Super sub Jijah (Anwar’s reserve player)
That the strange bedfellows did not have a confirmed PM designate was apparent when PAN deputy president Salahuddin Ayub – at the Pakatan convention on 12 Nov 2016 – urged his comrades to name The Chosen One on the spot.
Much the same uncertainly can be gleaned from PKR deputy president Nurul Izzah Anwar’s tentativeness when she mentioned a month later on Dec 15 that the matter would be determined in a special meeting. Both developments however did not materialize.
The next day (Dec 16) nonetheless, Lim Kit Siang openly declared that PKR president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail would be the Pakatan PM designate for the interim in the event that PPBM-Harapan vanquished BN in GE14. Muhyiddin would temporarily be her deputy.
Maid Marion marionette doing the macarena
Then last week, DAP national organizing secretary Anthony Loke Siew Fook reiterated Lim’s call for Wan Azizah to be made “our first female PM”.
Loke tossed the idea in his parliament speech responding to Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin who suggested that Malaysia could have its first woman prime minister by the year 2050.
The steadfast support of DAP for Wan Azizah’s PM candidacy baffles many.
After all, it is a matter of public record that she had stated her intention to retire from politics after resigning her Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat on 31 July 2008 to enable her husband Anwar Ibrahim to return in a by-election. The excuse was that she wished to focus on her family.
But lo and behold, after her husband’s jail sentence by the Court of Appeal on 7 March 2014 – a spanner in the works and motions of the infamous Kajang Move – Wan Azizah was inevitably named Anwar’s stand-in for the Kajang by-election on 23 March 2014.
The manoeuvre originally designed to enable Anwar to take over from Khalid Ibrahim as Selangor Menteri Besar was stymied when it was Azmin Ali who was appointed instead in the September of that year. The attempt by PRK, coupled with the strong support of DAP, to have Wan Azizah replace Khalid as MB had turned out adversely for her.
