Red herring in Selangor?

No, I'm not going to discuss the constitutional legality of HRH appointing Azmin Ali as the new MB of Selangor. I leave that to the lawyers attending the current International Malaysia Law Conference in KL, not that their expertise opinions would matter, wakakaka.

Instead my post is about a red herring in Selangor, wakakaka.

Incidentally, there is a reasonably sympathetic-to-HRH article published in The Malaysian Insider today, rather well written by Terence Fernandez and titled A right royal dilemma. Read it to see what you think of Fernandez's views?

This post is about some views in RPK's post today titled Finally it's the Sultan who decides where my "sifu" (wakakaka) and matey has written (relevant extracts only):

Some readers are now coming out with conspiracy theories. They say that Anwar Ibrahim actually wanted Azmin as the MB all along and that Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was just a red herring. Anwar did not really want his wife as MB. From the very beginning he wanted Azmin so Dr Wan Azizah was just the decoy to throw people of the scent. [...]

In that case, why the need for the most complicated ‘Kajang Move’? Azmin was already an ADUN (State Assemblyman) since 2013. In fact, he was an ADUN since 2008. Azmin could have been made the MB last year when the Kajang Move was first mooted. Why the need for Lee Chin Cheh to resign his Kajang state seat and make way for a by-election?

In the first place, Anwar was supposed to contest the Kajang by-election. Was that not the intention? Was this a red herring as well? Did Anwar intend for Dr Wan Azizah to contest that seat from the very beginning? So was this yet another wayang, just like Azmin was supposed to be the MB from the very beginning?

The truth is these people do not want to admit that the Kajang Move was an epic disaster. The plan in the beginning was that Anwar would contest the Kajang by-election and then would become the new Selangor MB. When this plan failed they changed it to Dr Wan Azizah would contest the Kajang by-election and become the MB instead.

Then that, too, failed. So now they say that the plan all along was for Azmin to become the MB and everything else were just red herrings to confuse everyone and to camouflage what they really intended — that is for Azmin to become the MB.

Well, I have been one of those who came out with the above conspiracy theory, wakakaka, though with a major difference - I have never refuse or fail to castigate, lambast, hammer the Kajang Move kau kau, even against DAP's Tony Pua for supporting it, wakakaka.

Yes, It's not only PAS but the DAP who has anwaristas, wakakaka.

But I stand firm in my belief the whole sorry episode had been designed for Azmin Ali to realize his long-held ambition to be MB of Selangor.

However, I must concede that my "sifu" knows far more about the intrigues and untold stories behind the scenes in Selangor so-called constitutional crisis, what more with his direct line to his Cousin (with capitalized 'C'). So he could be right.

Nonetheless as a blogger and with all respect to my matey RPK who knows much much more, I like to toss in my 2 sens worth of conspiracy theory, wakakaka. Please consider this post as just another of my writing exercises.

Okay, I have been the very commentator at RPK's blog to use the word 'red herring' to describe Dr Wan's MB candidature (in place of Anwar's). I will return to this word (red herring) shortly in my explanation on why I believe the principal beneficiary of the rancid Satay has all along, right from Day 1, been Azmin Ali.

Now, to answer Pete's relevant query on why the Kajang Move was then necessary for Anwar Ibrahim (later supersub-ed by Dr Wan) to become a Selangor ADUN if he/she was a mere red herring when Azmin Ali was already ADUN for Bukit Antarabangsa, qualified and ready to be MB in place of Khalid?

Okay, before I answer RPK's queries, let me ask a question myself: If the Kajang Move was indeed to provide Anwar Ibrahim (or a member of his family) with access to the Selangor MB's position, why then didn't Azmin Ali vacate his Bukit Antarabangsa's state seat for Anwar when he (Azmin) is already a federal MP for Gombak and can afford to spare his state seat for his mentor and father-figure?

After all, wasn't that move designed for Anwar to combat the most nefarious of UMNO's intention? An Azmin Ali sacrifice would have been seen by the voters as a truly noble gesture, rather than poor Lee Chin Cheh being instructed to move aside.

It's a rhetorical question meaning I already have the answer, which is that Azmin Ali has to, MUST retain his Bukit Antarabangsa state seat and remain as a Selangor ADUN to become MB. Or the entire Satay Bullshit would have been a total loss.

Thus the unimportant-to-PKR Lee Chin Cheh had to be the sacrificial goat.

Okay, now to answer RPK more directly - on 03 February this year I wrote a letter to Malaysiakini, published as The ‘Kajang betrayal’ and Princess Diana (wakakaka) in which I wrote (extracts as follows):

But in this Kajang betrayal, we have been informed that it was, variously, a decision to “strengthen” or “save” PKR (we heard both versions), a “tactical” move which soon became a “strategic” one to combat the evils of Mahathirism following the pending disposal of Prime Minister (PM) Najib Abdul Razak, then to showcase Selangor as a shining example of Pakatan rule, also to resist racial and religious incitements, and so on so forth; until we also heard it is to make Selangor as Anwar’s launch pad to take Putrajaya.

As a Malay would say of PKR’s transforming justification(s), semakin tambah semakin lemak, an increasingly richer embellishment with such succeeding attempt to explain Lee Chin Cheh’s abandonment of the people of Kajang who had just voted for him as their state representative a mere nine months ago, in order to facilitate Anwar’s entry into the Selangor state assembly and hopefully, his eventual appointment as the state’s menteri besar (MB).

Give them a few more weeks and I’m confident those embellishments will attain Ben Hur-ish proportions.

When the Satay Shit Stick with the already decaying rotten meat was thrown onto the charcoal grill, no one other than 4 PKR people knew about it. Even then, I suspected that Anwar himself was initially clueless, thus perhaps only 3 PKR people knew of the plan right at its onset (find out who had been one of them, wakakaka).

In my letter to Malaysiakini I continued with the following (extracts):

Wasn't it supposed to a Pakatan strategic move, but obviously one in which Lim Guan Eng, the secretary-general of DAP and PAS leaders and even some PKR leaders knew nothing about, and which Anwar couldn't provide an explanation straightaway?

For such a glib diarrheic orator like Anwar Ibrahim, the only reason I could think of for him being unable to provide an instant response was that either he was caught unaware of what was happening or had just came to know of the Satay Scheme pretty late, meaning he wasn't even informed at the very beginning. My letter continued:

Perhaps it was so strategic and secretive that only four people know about it, namely, Lee Chin Cheh who had to resign his state assemblyperson post, Rafizi Ramli, the self-acknowledged brains behind Lee’s resignation, Azmin Ali and (I truly hope) Anwar Ibrahim.

NGO Bersih has criticised the Kajang Betrayal, and so has its former chairperson, Ambiga Sreenevasan. Human Rights lawyer Edward Bon has been incensed by it. PAS Youth was livid with rage and earlier on vowed not to support Anwar’s candidacy in Kajang, while Selangor PAS has started to stake out their claims on the MB post.

Earlier in my letter I had written:

For such an important Pakatan ‘strategy’ it’s puzzling that the secretary-general of DAP did not even know of the sudden PKR-initiated action, let alone being consulted or at the very least, informed. 

Lim Guan Eng confessed he was completely in the dark about Lee Chin Cheh’s resignation. Should a Pakatan ‘strategy’ be initiated by PKR alone without prior consultation with the leaders of its political allies? I believe PAS was also not informed. 

That Lim Guan Eng’s father and DAP chairperson Karpal Singh have now come out in support of Anwar Ibrahim’s ‘strategy’, long after Lee’s resignation was announced, does not mean it was none other than a PKR initiated ‘tactic’. Perhaps the DAP and PAS saw the need to maintain a cohesive Pakatan Rakyat and to quietly swallow PKR’s action as an unavoidable fait accompli.

The list of unhappiness over the Kajang Betrayal goes on, while constitutional lawyers have their days discussing, dissecting and displaying their knowledge on the federal and Selangor state constitutions.

Now consider an alternative scene which would have avoided all the brouhaha: PKR consulted PAS and DAP. The resignation was announced at a Pakatan (and not PKR) press conference immediately following a PKR assemblyperson’s resignation.

The PKR assemblyperson who had volunteered to resign was Azmin Ali of the Bukit Antarabangsa state seat. Azmin Ali explained his noble self-sacrificing decision as only giving up a state seat while still remaining a federal member of Parliament (MP) for Gombak and where he would continue serving the people of Bukit Antarabangsa in his capacity of MP. Lee Chin Cheh would not have been required to abandon the people of Kajang!

Alas, that was not to be. I wonder why? [admittedly writing this with a smile].

But it does tell us, nay, remind us of the way PKR acts unilaterally and then would label those actions as being of Pakatan Rakyat provenance, presenting both DAP and PAS with fait accompli they dare not reject for fear of a disunited coalition.

Most of us know that the DAP and PAS hadn't previously supported Azmin Ali as MB, and preferred Khalid Ibrahim. That Khalid Ibrahim subsequently turned maverick in his constitutional and democratic-traditional mannerism (probably because he was repetitively humiliated by PKR) which revolted DAP and two PAS ADUNs, with Saari Sungib being wont to state "Khalid Ibrahim's behaviour was intolerable by the hour", is an entirely separate story.

But the important point to bear in mind is that the DAP and PAS did NOT and likely would NOT have supported Azmin Ali as the replacement MB if this intention was stated right at the beginning of the Satay Bullshit.

That's why Anwar and subsequently Dr Wan had to serve as the red herring, or there would have been no DAP or PAS support. And where would the Satay have ended, or how would Azmin Ali realize his long-burning ambition?

Yesterday in my post Satay always meant for Dökkálfar Dwarf I wrote two significant points:

Firstly, I said: Even Lim GE and Hadi Awang were left out in the cold, indicating it has been/is solely a PKR game, an intra-party power struggle, where for someone to achieve his wet dreams, a lot of people including Pakatan allies and especially the Kajang voters have been, are and will be f**ked around kau kau.

The reason for leaving DAP, PAS and indeed most of PKR out in the cold has been that PKR's "inner coterie" knew the DAP and PAS did not (still do not) and would not have supported the Dwarf as the person to replace Khalid Ibrahim as the MB of Selangor.

That was why the "inner coterie" went though the entire babbling tommyrot of sheer utter bullshit to explain the Satay Bull as a decision to “strengthen” or “save” PKR (we heard both versions), a “tactical” move which soon became a “strategic” one to combat the evils of Mahathirism following the pending disposal of Prime Minister (PM) Najib Abdul Razak, then to showcase Selangor as a shining example of Pakatan rule, also to resist racial and religious incitements, and so on so forth; until we also heard it is to make Selangor as Anwar’s launch pad to take Putrajaya.

To wit, the red herring, with Anwar in the top starring role (subsequently substituted with Dr Wan).

Secondly, I also said of Anwar Ibrahim(worth reproducing here):

To be frank I don't believe Anwar Ibrahim really wants to be MB of Selangor. As I mentioned in my previous post The Chaos that is PKR that:

Anwar Ibrahim is a big-time politician who yearns for, seeks out and can only thrive in big-picture politics at either the national (federal) or international level.

To use an analogy, this man is a big shark of the high seas and not an ikan keli swimming in a longkang. You can't put him in a padi irrigation canal or a home-type fish tank and then expect him to flourish.

If I believe Anwar doesn't want to be MB of Selangor, then WTF is it all about?

Now, notwithstanding his declaration that he won't go for the MB post (or PAS will be mighty pissed off before the by-election, and we can't have that, can we?) there are 3 possibilities following his Kajang move and hope-for victory in the by-election:

(i) Ousts Khalid Ibrahim by Taichi* or Shaolin, becomes MB and promotes Azmin Ali to deputy MB, with the latter effectively the de facto MB running Selangor, all but in name (of MB), while Mr Manmanlai swims away to the high seas of national-level and international politics.

* see my post The Tai Chi Master - with the advantage of hindsight, it turned out to be Shaolin and not Taichi, wakakaka

(ii) As an ADUN or even exco member but PKR de facto leader, breathes down heavily on MB Khalid Ibrahim's neck, somehow promotes Azmin to be deputy MB with same subsequent happenings as above, and possibly with Khalid Ibrahim as the Malaysian version of the Japanese enthroned Emperor of Manchukuo.

(iii) Oust Khalid and install Azmin as MP, and to f**ks with PAS and you-know-who!!!

To summarize, all these brouhaha and gross insult to Kajang-ites by PKR have been to serve one PKR leader, and he is NOT Anwar Ibrahim! Even the Great One must serve him!

And that is why someone has been smiling like The Cheshire Cat! ... because he got the red herring? wakakaka.

Even Dr Mahathir had said of Anwar: "Do not think that he only wants to be the Menteri Besar. For Anwar, the Menteri Besar (post) is small. He wants to be the Prime Minister."

"Elections [in Selangor] can be held, but I don't think it will solve any problem until Anwar becomes PM. I think if we let him become Prime Minister for a month, he will be satisfied, but even then he would not let go." Wakakaka.

all kowtim already, wakakaka

Thus, on this score, I disagree respectfully with RPK - sorry Pete. I strongly believe the Satay Bull has always been for Azmin Ali and that the Anwar Ibrahim-Dr Wan candidature as MB had all along been a red herring.