Serial Betrayer Azmin in the Final Betrayal?
We know that both men are ambitious and dying to be prime minister. We also know that only one man can get the job, while the other has to wait his turn.
The thing is, overly ambitious politicians are unable to see what we outsiders can clearly view.
In this case, I can agree with DAP lawmaker Ronnie Liu, who recently said that Azmin should realise he does not stand a chance of becoming prime minister over Anwar.
This, he said, is because the majority faction in PKR, as well as Amanah and DAP, are backing Anwar as the next prime minister.
Azmin was just the private secretary to Anwar when he was deputy prime minister. I believe that a private secretary’s post is equivalent to that of a chief clerk and below that of a political secretary in seniority.
If a clerk cannot wait for his boss to fulfil his ambition to be prime minister, then I sense something is not right somewhere.
At 54, Azmin is also 18 years younger than Anwar. He has all the time in the world. Patience is the keyword here.
I notice he started his less-than-faithfulness to Anwar during a PKR intra-party elections in late 2010, which I posted in The Poison within PKR – Part III – I had then written:
In spite of my hero Karpal Singh condemning Zaid, I have written in support of the latter – see my previous post Zaid Ibrahim – suffers no fool gladly.
When Zaid Ibrahim was in PKR at the time leading to the party polls (before he tossed his hat into the election ring) he was criticised for being erratic because one moment he said he would not challenge the deputy presidential post IF (initially) Nurul Izaah took up the challenge*, then IF (subsequently) Khalid Ibrahim did so, and the next (when both didn’t) he took up the challenge.
* Azmin Ali went into a panicky tizzy when Nurul casually mentioned her interests in the deputy president post, and ‘advised’ Nurul against it because people would talk. Bet you Anwar had a few private words with Nurul – at that time, Azmin was still Anwar’s blue-eyed boy
The standard anwaristas’ cries against Zaid Ibrahim were his inconsistencies (in supporting Nurul, then Khalid, before standing as a candidate himself), and their accusations unimaginatively attacked Zaid for his lust for power.
But I didn’t see any inconsistency in Zaid’s manoeuvrings. In fact there was a very consistent objective in his support for firstly, Nurul, and subsequently for Khalid Ibrahim, before he personally challenged Azmin Ali in the party election. That objective was to prevent Azmin Ali from coasting home on an Anwar-provided free ticket into the deputy president post. Zaid wanted Azmin Ali stopped!
Yes, Zaid was invincibly against Azmin Ali, the man for whom Anwar Ibrahim instructed Nallakaruppan to stand aside in a party VP contest some years back, and which drove Nalla out of the party in angry frustration. Nalla would have easily won that VP position because of the strength of his Indian supporters in PKR.
Zaid Ibrahim saw Azmin Ali for what he (Azmin) was and now is. Apart from Zaid’s political prescience, a supposedly loyal Azmin would not have discouraged Nurul Izzah (daughter of his erstwhile mentor) from contesting for whatever PKR post she fancied.
Then in that stupid Kajang Move soon after GE13 in May 2013 for the nebulous purpose of replacing a recalcitrant Khalid Ibrahim as the Selangor MB because the MB was going on his own bat (outside PKR-Pakatan interests) wakakaka, the person supposed to be the new MB for Selangor was Anwar Ibrahim.
But due to inopportune jailing of Anwar on Sodomy II, his wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail contested that by-election and easily won – she was then supposed to be the new MB Selangor, as PKR and DAP nominated her. PAS, however, did not support her nomination and instead proposed Azmin Ali.
What Azmin Ali should have done as a loyal Anwar man was to decline that PAS nomination in favour of her PKR President. But he didn’t and, with HRH Selangor’s unexpected and in fact unconstitutional refusal to accept the name who enjoyed “the confidence of the majority of the Selangor DUN” and HRH’s personal preference for Azmin Ali, the Dwarf became MB on 23rd September 2014.
But that was not the end of his betrayal of his former mentor and party.
