By Haris Ibrahim,
You get on a packed bus headed to Taiping.
Same journey for all 50 passengers, but each having their own agenda in wanting to reach that common destination.
The same can be said of the group of 15 PKR MPs, now called ‘G15′ by certain quarters, who are reported to be pushing an agenda to displace Khalid Ibrahim as MB of Selangor.
My sources tell me that G15 actually numbers 11.
Khalid claims to be in the dark about this agenda.
Yeah, right!
As does Azmin, even as he conceals the unsheathed dagger beneath the cloak of political intrigue and deception.
“I don’t know of any move by MPs to start a petition on this matter. I am not denying it, I don’t know. How could I agree or disagree when I have no access to information…I am not part of this so I wouldn’t know, I was not at the meeting, when was the meeting honestly? Let me check with my colleagues” , Malaysiakini reported Azmin as saying of this rumoured uprising.
“If I wanted to pull him down, I would have done it after March 8 general election. Why now? His term is expiring soon, so why now? If that was my game, I should have done it before” , FreeMalaysiaToday reports Azmin as responding to suggestions that he is behind moves to topple Khalid as MB.
Yet, the truth, as known by anyone who is anything in PKR, is that Azmin has long wanted to bring Khalid down, the former coveting the MBship of Selangor for himself even as the dust of the 12th GE began to settle.
PKR’s Elizabeth Wong has called on the G15 members to ‘show their faces’.
Huh!
The truth, again, is that anyone who is anything in PKR knows who they are.
That necessarily includes Anwar.
Indeed, at the just concluded PKR national congress in Kota Baru last month, the MP for Teluk Kemang, representing 10 other PKR MPs, brought to Anwar’s attention their grievances about Khalid’s leadership of the Selangor government, and their demand that Khalid be immediately relieved of the office of MB.
Anwar, I am told, assured Kamarul that their grievances would be looked into and addressed.
The next day, after delivering her presidential address, and at a press conference, Wan Azizah made it clear that Khalid would remain as MB of Selangor.
In her presidential address, she defended Khalid against the criticism leveled at him.
“He has defended the principles of transparency and accountability by chipping away at the wastage and corruption that have become part of Umno’s culture. The courage of the Selangor government in introducing Selcat – exposing all, is the renewal that we can be proud of” , Malaysiakini reports her as saying.
Did Anwar, then, renege on any assurances given to Kamarul? Were there any assurances given to placate the group?
Only Anwar and Kamarul can tell us.
I had sms’d Anwar several times asking to meet in the hope of clearing this with him.
No response.
I guess he’s been too busy.
Now slighted by the president’s defence of Khalid, the group of disenchanted MPs began to make their moves.
And as they did, some from within their ranks, big boys within the party set up who, until then, were said to be aligned to he who wields the unsheathed dagger, either grew somewhat alarmed with the direction the group was taking or came to be viewed with suspicion, given the plot that was being hatched.
Whatever the reason, he who bites, another who holds the party purse strings and one of the party’s v-ps, either withdrew or were dumped from G15.
And in their place stepped in Gwo Burne and Kapar Mike.
So who make up the 11 in G15 now?
Here’s the list.
Manikavasagam of Kapar, Gwo-Burne of Kelana Jaya, Rashid Din of Merbok, Abdul Aziz Abdul Kadir of Ketereh, Kamarul Baharin of Teluk Kemang, Azan Ismail of Indera Mahkota, Mohd Yusmadi Mohd Yusoff of Balik Pulau, Zuraida Kamaruddin of Ampang, and Abdullah Sani Abdul Hamid of Kuala Langat.
That’s only 9, did you say?
Well, throw in that low-life, froggie Wee Choo Keong of Wangsa Maju, and he who wields the unsheathed dagger, and there’s your 11.
Now, if nothing else, the presence of Wee in this clandestine effort to depose the leadership in Selangor must cast serious doubts on the intentions of some, if not all, involved.
Unless Wee’s complicity is not known to all the other 10, which then lends a more sinister sheen to their agenda.
Why the move to unseat Khalid, then?
Last night, 17 out of 22 Selangor PKR division leaders turned up at MB Khalid’s house to pledge their support for MB. Malaysiakini has a report on this HERE.
He who wields the unsheathed dagger was amongst the 5 not present. No reasons given.
Selangor PKR, the Aduns and the Exco members, it would seem, are, rightly or wrongly, generally supportive of Khalid.
If this whole issue is indeed about Selangor and little else, where do the non-Selangor MPs fit in?
What gives?
I spoke to several Selangor Adun and Excos before last night’s meeting at the MB’s residence.
All said the same. The problem with Khalid is that he is not a politician, but a corporate bureaucrat, and not a very good one, at that.
Quite a few said he’s not decisive enough.
And afraid to tackle some thorny issues head on.
And there’s little deliberation between him and other party leaders.
But he’s clean, they all say.
And there was no-one else to helm the state government in the wake of the 12th GE tsunami.
What about he who wields the unsheathed dagger, I asked.
“The word is that if you want to make money, align yourself to Azmin. Do you want him as MB?”, one Adun responded.
So what’s the beef that these MPs have with Khalid, then?
Contract opportunities and money, I am told.
Kamarul, a long time and loyal supporter of Anwar, and who apparently dug deep into his own financial resources to help the party, is said to be now up against the wall, in financial dire straits.
Yusmadi, it seems, enjoys a life style that exceeds his means. His wife, a legal practitioner, receives work from the Selangor state government but, it seems, that’s just not enough.
All, it seems, are moved by personal interest with little consideration for the people of Selangor.
And for one, that personal interest is about removing the competition for the race to the top.
“Everyone knows that Azmin wanted the MB’s post and has resented Khalid’s appointment. Azmin still wants the post but this has nothing to do with the well-being of Selangor”, the Adun I spoke to offered.
It would seem that he who wields the unsheathed dagger has set his sights beyond just the seat of power in Selangor.
Well beyond Selangor.
Much has come to pass since 8th March, 2008.
Syed Husin Ali has announced he will not be looking to defend his incumbent position as deputy president at the party elections this coming November.
Number 2 post is therefore up for grabs.
And whilst it was always assumed by certain quarters that Wan Azizah would make way for Anwar to rise uncontested to the position of party president, this now hangs precariously in the balance given the real uncertainty of Anwar remaining at large upon the conclusion of the ongoing Sodomy 2 trial, appeal and all.
Anwar, however, I’m told, has been insisting that he will not avail himself for the position of party president, much to the annoyance of many in the party.
Is number 1, too, ripe for the picking?
Who, in the party, are seen as likely candidates?
Khalid, for all the criticism that has rained on him, cannot be discounted.
And then there is the new kid on the block, Zaid.
He who wields the unsheathed dagger, too, fancies his chances.
A possible three-horse race, then?
And in comes G15, made up by a majority of non-Selangor MPs, maneuvering to finish off Khalid, leaving only Zaid to be dealt with on a later date, if the internally sabotaged Hulu Selangor by-election is not seen as having done enough.
Against this backdrop, the G15, minus Wee, is beginning to look like a national team built along the lines of BN, to wrest power in PKR this coming November.
Why like BN?
Well, Gwo-Burne and Mike representing the ‘nons’ in an otherwise all-Malay team does look line BN all over again, does it not?
All this for an aspirant to high office?
Is this the politics of PKR that we should brace ourselves for?
Is this the politics that will pave the way for Pakatan Rakyat to Putrajaya?
Where is Anwar whilst this drama unfolds?
Make no mistake, Anwar is aware of all that is happening.
Yet he appears to turn a blind eye to this, seemingly unable to rein in his protege.
This does not appear to be the first time.
As two Sabah PKR divisional chiefs observed some time back, and reported in Malaysiakini, “We don’t know what kind of hold Azmin has over Anwar and that disturbs us. Something is just not right here.“
Indeed, little is right in PKR at the moment.
Much of what is dreadfully wrong is seen by many in party leadership as stemming from Anwar’s indecisiveness in dealing effectively with the cancerous cells within the party.
Remember Zul Nordin?
I just got this sms from someone who is at the PKR retreat at Shah Alam.
“If Anwar does not shape up, there will be no PKR in 6 months”.
I’ll end this post with an excerpt from Martin Jalleh’s ‘Please pack up and go, PKR’.
“Please, please PKR stop pushing your fanciful dreams about occupying Putrajaya when you are in such a pathetic and pitiful state with your prima donna politicians parading their shameless petty and puerile politics in public.As a party you have become laughable, and as RPK predicts you could be facing your last days!…Your endless intra-party squabbles, spats and skirmishes and splintered groups sicken those of us who once supported, voted and stood steadfastly by you…We are tired of your MPs and Assemblymen’s threats to resign, their taunts to one another to quit and their theatrics and tantrums to be turncoats…Your politicians are made up mainly of clowns who crap, crow, clamour for and cry aloud about change but cling on to their political charades, chicanery, claptrap and conspiracies, instead of collaborating at all costs in your professed commitment to bring about concrete change…Yes, go for your weekend retreat PKR leaders. I hope you will prove me and many others wrong but my guess is that you will still be a party weak, wavering, wobbling, wandering and wanting to do each other in…as you chart your way into political wilderness! The road to Putrajaya requires stomach, stamina, synergy, solidarity and the sacrifice of personal agendas for the larger national agenda. Sadly, this journey has been stymied by your somnolent, selfish, self-centered and supercilious political representatives, whom Bolehland can do well without”.
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