The man who would be PM

I gifted you the mortal world
To rule the lands and do as you please
And now you impious earth worm
You dare to claim your father's throne?

- Pretender To The Throne (opus I: The Usurper's Spawn)

Malaysiakini - If Ku Li can be PM, why can't I, jests Azmin

Anwar Ibrahim states that, should he be jailed after the 109 court verdict, Pakatan will have an interim prime minister until he (Anwar) is released by a Pakatan government.

Azmin Ali, when asked whether Tengku Razaleigh (Ku Li) will be headhunted to act as the interim PM, was reported to have ‘jested’ why shouldn't he (Azmin) be the interim PM?

May I just comment that I doubt he was jesting!

Just a reminder - this post is about Azmin Ali and not Anwar Ibrahim. However, in writing about Azmin’s ambition, it's not possible to avoid mentioning Anwar as well because really, without the latter’s unquestioning support and endorsement of Azmin, the question in Malaysian politics would likely have been: “Who in the world is this Azmin Ali?”

Anwar’s unreserved support of Azmin Ali is well-known to all, and thus I’m not revealing any State or PKR secret, nor am I bashing Anwar.

Azmin Ali’s ascendancy to become PKR’s No 2 has been charted by him personally (in this, he’s certainly ambitious) and endorsed unquestioningly by Anwar Ibrahim. Like a dodgem car, he had bulldozed both Nallakaruppan and Zaid Ibrahim aside in PKR party elections, naturally with the ‘help’ of Anwar and the inner coterie.

We have been told that in a PKR party election some years back, Anwar instructed Nalla not to contest the remaining VP position because the former wanted Azmin Ali to take up that post, a vital one for Azmin if he is to eventually ascend to the deputy presidency.

Naturally an outraged Nalla left PKR in acrimonious circumstances, not unlike Anwar himself when he was expelled unceremoniously from UMNO. Both felt a sense of grave injustice to their respective selves, perceived or otherwise. Given this, it's bizarre Anwar didn't consider Nalla's feelings, but then again, maybe not!

But I wasn’t surprised when the anwaristas pinned the label of traitor or UMNO Trojan Horse unjustly on Nalla, as they did REPETITIVELY on anyone who left PKR in unfriendly circumstances, usually in dispute or in disgust with Azmin Ali or/and Anwar Ibrahim.

It would not be too far-fetched to say, without that dictatorial and most un-reformasi marginalization, Nalla could well have been PKR’s No 2 today, what with the depth of the Indian ranks then in that party.

As for Zaid Ibrahim, I have always lamented his incorrect decision to opt for membership in PKR instead of DAP, but I suspect he wanted to provide himself as an alternative to Azmin, who was not well thought of by many in PKR but whose position has been so well entrenched because of his godfather’s favouritism.

As I had written in other posts, Zaid attempted to persuade, firstly, Khalid Ibrahim to go for PKR’s No 2 position, and then, when Khalid dared not challenge Azmin, encouraged Nurul Izzah to do so (a poor choice if I may say, because of her age, lack of seniority and inexperience).

Initially Nurul showed some interests, very much to Azmins’ alarm who ‘advised’ her not to because (the brazen hypocrisy of it all) people would ‘talk’ about her relationship with dad. She suddenly withdrew for reasons you may wish to speculate on. I would not be at all surprised to learn that Azmin is far far more favoured than her – no, most certainly not at all surprised!

Thus, when Zaid saw both Khalid and Nurul declining, he knew that unless he offered himself as a candidate for the No 2 position, Azmin Ali would have a free ride all the way to the top, and I mean the ‘top’ because we all know too well that Wan Azizah has been and still is a reluctant politician, thus making the PKR No 2 virtually the de facto president.

Obviously de facto-ism exists abundantly in PKR.

Azmin of course had long since seen Zaid as his most likely and dangerous opponent, a capable man of some standing, experience and competency who would be unlikely to stand aside for him (Azmin) on Anwar’s say-so.

From RPK’s Malaysia-Today - we read of the following in his post Denial:

PKR denies sabotaging Zaid Ibrahim in the Ulu Selangor by-election in spite of the reporters who leaked the story confirming that the doctored photograph of Zaid with the beer bottle was handed to them by Azmin Ali and not by Umno.

We’re also sadly aware of the scandalous shameful shambles that had been the last PKR party elections, which saw Azmin Ali established as the Deputy President of PKR.

In a post in December 2010, PKR without Anwar Ibrahim & Azmin Ali, I commented on a Malaysiakini news report titled 400,000 PKR members, where art thou? questioning the kosher-ness of PKR’s true membership figures, I wrote:

Questions have been raised about PKR’s real membership figures, especially as only 10% of the claimed 400,000 voted in the recent party’s election.

Prior to this MKINI report, a reason tossed about was that PKR had deliberately inflated its membership numbers to justify/stake its large share of the seat allocations among the three Pakatan component parties.

If that has been the case then PKR had fibbed to its Pakatan allies; if that wasn’t, then PKR has had an abysmal turnout for its party election, raising doubts about the legitimacy of Azmin Ali’s election as the new deputy president of PKR.

Out of 10% of the claimed 400,000 members who voted, Azmin only received slightly less than 20,000, a mere fraction (5%) of the total numbers.

Is 5% of membership support sufficient to justify his No 2 position in the party. With Dr Wan Azizah a known reluctant politician and a passive president (only in name), Azmin Ali is now virtually the leader of PKR, on the basis of the 5% members' support he received.

And even that 5% is questioned for being not kosher.

Because Azmin Ali has been supported, protected, endorsed and perhaps even pampered by Anwar Ibrahim for years, he usually got what he wanted. As Anwar has always supported him in what he desired, he would not be wrong in assuming he is Anwar’s natural heir.

But he should be mindful that impression is only good within PKR. Pakatan, unlike PKR, does not belong to Anwar. It’s not for Anwar to bestow his (agreed to) position in Pakatan to anyone in PKR, even and especially his blue-eyed boy, a junior within the Pakatan senior leadership ranks already packed with luminaries like the two Pak Haji's and various other personalities in PAS, and Karpal Singh, Lim KS, Lim GE and more in DAP.

To be fair to Anwar, I did read his response to a query about the 'interim PM" where he remarked that the next senior Malay Pakatan member is Pak Haji Awang.

However, Azmin Ali might be entertaining the fallacy that he automatically inherits Anwar’s position as Pakatan’s nominated PM in a Pakatan government, should Anwar be unavailable to take up that post.

I acknowledge that the current (lack of) political maturity among Malaysians won’t accept the idea of a non-Malay PM, thus it will be probably a PAS person who will most likely act as PM until Anwar is released by a future Pakatan government – note: I won’t go into ‘what if’ should PAS renege, which can be another post discussion.

While nothing in politics is impossible, I seriously doubt the PAS leadership will countenance an Azmin Ali’s presumptuously imperious expectation/demand to be interim PM (on behalf of Anwar Ibrahim).