Mega crisis in mini state

Joceline Tan, The Star

DATUK Seri Shahidan Kassim has always treated Perlis as his political fiefdom.

Everyone in Umno knows that. They also know better than to challenge him because he will use every trick in the book to take you on.

But even those who know him well were stunned by the extent to which he tried to defend his turf the last week in Perlis.

Barisan Nasional won Perlis with a two-thirds majority but is still unable to form a proper government because of the clash over the Mentri Besar post.

He has rejected the Raja of Perlis’ choice of Datuk Seri Azlan Man as Mentri Besar, spurned the swearing-in ceremony of Azlan on Thursday and declared that Azlan has been sacked from Umno.

Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Putra Jamalullail had picked Azlan over Datuk Ismail Kassim, the Tambun Tulang assemblyman and younger brother of Shahidan.

It is an outright confrontation that seems to signal that Umno’s days as the defender of the Malay Rulers is no longer what it used to be.

Shahidan’s defiance left his friends in Umno with their jaws on the floor.

Many of them think he has gone too far and a few were shocked beyond words.

The Perlis chapter of Mubarak, the association of former YBs, has even slammed him for treachery against the throne.

“Umno is in chaos, I’m not sure if it can ever recover and now this. I don’t even know what to say, it’s really ridiculous,” said political commentator Dr Azmi Omar.

Umno in chaos may be an understatement. The coalition headed by Umno has been wiped out nationwide except in Perlis, Pahang and Sarawak.

The Umno president is being investigated over the 1MDB scandal and its main coalition partners MCA is in ICU while Gerakan and MIC are at death’s door.

The power structure in Barisan Nasional is crumbling, the old rules no longer apply and that may explain why Shahidan has been emboldened.

Everywhere he turns he sees the party in disarray, he probably feels he does not have to take orders that he does not agree with.

And as some in Umno say, Shahidan still has a direct line to Dr Mahathir. He refused to disassociate from Dr Mahathir and had defended the elder man even as the latter was attacking Umno.

Shahidan’s appeal for Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah and Dr Mahathir to intervene in the Perlis crisis did not go unnoticed.

Perak ended up with a hung assembly on election night, winning 29 seats against against 27 by Umno and three by PAS. But the Sultan consented to Pakatan forming a minority government and to making the sole Parti Pribumi assemblyman Faizal Azumu the Mentri Besar.

Shahidan was obviously signalling that the Perlis palace should heed the example of Perak and he seemed to be saying that he still looks up to his old mentor Dr Mahathir.

The Perlis crisis came up during a recent Umno meeting between Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and deputy division chiefs from all over the country.

Ketereh deputy chief Datuk Alwi Che Ahmad had urged Dr Ahmad Zahid, who has assumed the duties of the party president, to meet the Sultan and find a way out.

“I feel that we are like a ship in the Bermuda Triangle. You are now in charge – you have to lead us or we will disappear into the ocean.

“Perlis is only as big as Kubang Pasu, we won big there but we have been shamed because we still cannot form a government,” Alwi told the meeting.

Alwi said this sort of issues requires some degree of compromise on the part of the parties concerned.

“The palace must understand that the MB needs to have the support of his party YBs. At the same time, I would not demand that my brother become the MB. People are watching us, the rakyat is critical of cronyism and nepotism,” said Alwi.

The opinion out there is that Perlis may be heading into a snap state election.

But a new state election may not necessarily resolve the impasse and few people are keen to go to the polls again after such an intense general election.

Ismail, the man at the centre of the storm, has stepped forward to say that the Mentri Besar need not be him or Azlan and he has appealed to the Sultan to appoint anyone from among the other Umno assemblyman.

That may be a way out of the impasse but will the Ruler bend to the request?

What happened for relations between the palace and Shahidan to break down this way?

The Perlis royals are a remarkably humble and down-to-earth family and Shahidan must have really rubbed them up the wrong way for them to feel this way about him.

The Sultan had rejected Shahidan’s brother on the grounds that he did not want a “puppet Mentri Besar”.

The opinion in Umno is that a large part of the problem had to do with Shahidan’s larger-than-life personality and his warlord style of politics.

Although his fellow Umno politicians often find him to be excessive, he is very popular among ordinary folk because he is very generous and impulsive when it came to helping people.

His Mentri Besar residence used to resemble a clinic, with people waiting from early morning to ask him for help and favours. He rarely turned away people.

He was a very powerful Mentri Besar – he was a big fish in a small pond and he had the ears of Dr Mahathir.

But everything changed after Dr Mahathir retired in 2003.

Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi thought he could bell the cat, not knowing that he was dealing with a fierce tiger.

The new Prime Minister wanted a new Mentri Besar and tried to put Shahidan in a parliamentary seat in the 2004 general election.

Shahidan’s supporters revolted, tearing down banners and shutting their campaign centres. He was reinstated in a state seat and continued as Mentri Besar for a third term.

He was expecting to be reappointed Mentri Besar after the 2008 general election, but the his ties with the palace had become problematic by then and the Sultan chose the innocuous Datuk Seri Md Isa Sabu, followed by Azlan in 2013.

Azlan, a former civil servant, struggled from day one. He is not a politician, he lacks the people skills that Shahidan has in such abundance and most of all, he faced political sabotage.

The perception among the Perlis political circle is that Shahidan would behave as though he was still Mentri Besar, he was the one pressing the buttons. They claimed the powerful brothers sometimes snubbed palace functions.

Shahidan’s personality was so lively and flamboyant that people did not notice the real Mentri Besar when they were at the same event.

He was also a newsmaker and not always for the right reason. For instance, he had called for the banning of Facebook in Malaysia and also wanted to loosen the laws governing polygamy in his state.

Shahidan made life miserable for both successors, openly criticising them at the state assembly sitting. He would not invite Azlan to his events and neither did he attend functions organised by Azlan.

If they had to attend the same event, Shahidan would only mention Azlan’s names after the other VIPs’ names.

In the run-up to the general election, PRIMA, the national housing body, had invited both men for an event. Azlan cited a previous appointment when he learnt that Shahidan would be there while Shahidan pulled out when he heard Azlan had been invited.

According to Padang Besar MP Datuk Zahidi Zainal Abidin, Ismail has the support of nine of the 10 Barisan assemblymen.

He said Ismail’s name is on the watikah or letter of authorisation signed by Dr Ahmad Zahid and Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor.

This was the watikah that Dr Ahmad Zahid and Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein presented to the Sultan during an audience at the palace on Tuesday.

The Sultan had also met the 10 Barisan assemblymen individually to assess who they support for the top post.

It is learnt that all except three of them indicated that they wanted Ismail. The three exceptions said they would go along with whoever the Sultan picked.

Given that, it is unclear why the palace proceeded to swear in Azlan.

But highly placed sources said that the palace had wanted Azlan from the very start.

Azlan had actually agreed to contest the Kangar parliamentary seat in the general election but at the eleventh hour, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had called to ask him to contest the Bintong state seat on the request of the palace.

He was also asked to submit 10 state candidates who would support him for the Mentri Besar post.

However, when Shahidan learnt about the list, he headed to PWTC to lobby the leadership.

Azlan knew there would be trouble when he saw that the amended candidate list contained only two names aligned to him.

Appointing the Mentri Besar of Perlis has been troublesome since 2008.

Shahidan’s detractors say he is the cause of the trouble.

But Zahidi said that Shahidan has the support of Umno in the state and his opinion has to be considered.

He said times are tough and Umno needs a strong leadership in Perlis.

These are unusual times. Selangor has yet to appoint a Mentri Besar despite winning with a super majority while Sabah has two Chief Ministers and one state government.

Kedah is perfectly hung with 18 assemblymen on either sides and is unable to appoint a state assembly speaker, pass any laws or approve the Budget for now.

The state government in Perak is being backed up by the support of two “friendly Umno assemblymen” while in Perlis, there is a Mentri Besar but no state government.