Nik Aziz Nik Mat - Pakatan Rakyat's Optimus Prime?

Nik Aziz regrets media obsession in sodomy case - that was the headline in Malaysiakini yesterday.

Pak Haji Nik Aziz, the MB of Kelantan, has urged the media to stop highlighting the alleged sodomy case involving Anwar Ibrahim. He said they were unwittingly humiliating Anwar even though he has not been charged yet nor proven guilty

I agree with him that we Malaysians have an unhealthy obsession with the salacious, whether it’s the MSM digging it into Anwar and his alleged sodomy, or the alternative media, the blogosphere, giving free rein to insinuations, and even Statutory Declarations against Najib.

In the latter, the murder case of the Mongolian woman, Altantuyaa Shariibuu, despite the fact that there are already two accused undergoing trial for her murder with a third and high profile person being accessory to the crime, these haven’t satisfied a certain camp, or rather its political agenda.

No, not until Najib is implicated, and mind you, not just implicated as an accessory to the crime, but preferably as the principal suspect.

And if he can’t be directly dragged in, then he must be implicated through the alleged or ‘surat-layang-ish’ involvement of his wife as the mastermind behind Altantuyaa’s murder.

I believe the ‘long bow-ish’ attempt to join the rather haphazard dots of circumstantial evidence until they lead towards Najib has been and still is politically motivated, and certainly pushed by a certain segment of politics.

I find the above no different to the condemnation of Anwar’s sodomy allegation by the Anwar camp.

Pity Pak Haji didn’t raise this as well.

Anyway, bugger (sorry, pun not intended) all the above, because this post is about Pak Haji.

Mark my word, this man is now the only one who can hold the Pakatan Rakyat together, hopefully until the next general election.

Certainly Anwar Ibrahim was the man who first brought the three ideologically-diverse parties of the Pakatan Rakyat together pre and immediately post 08 March 2008 general elections, but in this role, he has passed his ‘use by’ date.

A major problem contributing to his diminished status as the principal cohesive force for the three parties has been his obsession with the destabilisation of the AAB government, when he should have been focusing instead on building up one solid component of the two-party system everyone has been hoping for, and even believed has arrived.

Alas, far from it!

I have already explained my belief on why Anwar Ibrahim has been ‘destabilising’ the government – principally to threaten and pressure UMNO (even with frogs and lots of other ‘kacau’) until (he hopes) the old party recalls/invites him back into the UMNO fold.

Besides, the strength of the PKR is not what he likes or even feels comfy with – the formation of the Selangor exco exemplifies his dilemma.

Thus, I reckon Anwar hasn’t really been interested in a permanent tenure in Pakatan Rakyat, which may explain why he didn’t/couldn’t be bothered with building up the opposition parliamentary strength and know-how. He’s the one (probably the only one) in PR with the experience of governing at federal level, yet he has not bothered to even form a shadow cabinet.

Since 09 March 2008, he has indulged in nothing except an unending campaign of destabilising the Malaysian government, hogging the limelight with his antics and his boasts of seizing government, until he must have pissed off the other PAS bigwig, Pak Haji Hadi Awang.

Pak Haji Hadi Awang isn’t the sort of bloke who is prepared to play second fiddle to a man like Anwar Ibrahim who has been running around loose with his actions as if he has an open Pakatan cheque book and the imprimatur to use it as and when he likes, without the need to consult PAS or DAP.

The DAP has played along with Anwar’s personal agenda, seemingly like an indulgent brother, because it knows it still needs PKR support if it is to continue to have a role in State governments. Even the rule of Penang is dependent on the support of a couple of PKR ADUNs because DAP has only a total of 19 ADUNS in the State.

But PAS is a different mob. And Pak Haji Awang has a strong nationalistic streak too.

Hadi Awang believes it’s more preferable for PAS to play footsies with UMNO – after all, both are Malay-Muslim parties, and to some, there is no difference between a Malay and a Muslim, or a Muslim and a Malay. Besides the DAP is a socialist secular and thus satanic party. A case of agama dan bangsa.

There have already been extensive talks between PAS (the Hadi Awang faction) and UMNO, and if those bear fruits, then even Anwar Ibrahim can’t prevent the disintegration of the Pakatan Rakyat, with Selangor and Perak as the first two Pakatan-ruled States to go to the proposed BN-PAS pact.

But Pak Haji Nik Aziz will have no bar of UMNO. He had exclaimed succinctly what he thought of PAS working with UMNO (words to this effect, that): “Surely no one is so stupid as to be bitten twice by a snake from the same hole?”

Though PAS is a political party which sometimes can’t make up its mind as to whether it’s an Islamic Party or a nationalistic (Malay) party, Pak Haji Nik Aziz alone has the prestige, power, position and personality to impose his political preference, including working with other opposition parties (inclusive of the secular DAP), on PAS members …

… which is why I believe he is the only man to hold the Pakatan Rakyat together. I hope he does.