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Monday, August 05, 2013

PKR after Anwar Ibrahim?

So Utusan Malaysia’s columnist Awang Selamat (in reality, believed to be one or a few of the editors at the newspaper) has naughtily written (char koay teow) that Azmin Ali will be going for the PKR party president’s position at the party elections, supposed to be held this year.


Unlike UMNO having it party elections soon, PKR has postponed theirs as apparently someone isn't quite ready or confident enough after the barrage of severely angry flak he received in the matter of the recent MB & Exco appointments in Selangor after the state elections. Has to lie low for a while, man!

The postponement of PKR party election scheduled for this year had been announced by one of his inner coterie, Saifuddin Nasution, better renowned for his participation in UMNO Youth's thuggish and violent disruption of an international forum Apcet II (Asia-Pacific Conference on East Timur) held in KL some years ago, at a time when Anwar Ibrahim was the acting PM and who crowed triumphantly about that disruption a la Brown Shirts & Steel Cap Jackboots.

It seems the postponed PKR party elections may well be held in April-May next year when, frightening as it may sound, Azmin Ali is expected to become PRK party president, as the current party president Wan Azizah is limited by PKR party constitution to only 3 terms as party president and thus must by party rules step down.

Since Anwar Ibrahim has lost much of his political enthusiasm after his Black 505 campaign seems to have fizzled out, and is rumoured as unlikely to stand for PKR party election to become the party's president, some in PKR suggested sweetie Nurul Izzah or Rafizi Ramli challenge Azmin Ali for that post.

Apart from Rafizi being part of Azmin Ali's inner coterie, he and Nurul are too young to ascend to the No 1 spot in PKR. But you never know as PKR members are renowned for their blind penchant for cultism.

What about Khalid Ibrahim then? Well, Terence Netto, columnist for Malaysiakini and a known supporter of Anwar and Azmin has just written in his Malaysiakini article Azmin for PKR No. 1 for certain, even without goading that:

"... being busy with the manifold responsibilities of being MB of the richest state in the country would preclude the requisite attention to party affairs the president of a still fledgling party would have to pay."

"Although Khalid is popular enough in the party to mount a credible challenge for the No. 1 post, he would have to be a bigamist - married to two jobs - to bring off the MB-ship of Selangor and the PKR presidency in one fell swoop."


Khalid would have to be a bigamist - married to two jobs - to bring off the MB-ship of Selangor and the PKR presidency in one fell swoop?

I have never heard such twaddle.

Isn't Najib both the PM and the president of UMNO? And wasn't Tunku, Razak, Hussein Onn, Mahathir and AAB as well?

What about Lim GE being both the CM of Penang and the Sec-Gen of DAP? And until recently before he retired, Pak Haji Nik Aziz was both the PAS MB of Kelantan and PAS spiritual leader.

I'm terribly disappointed with Terence Netto's balderdash baloney BS to suggest that Khalid Ibrahim should be eliminated straightaway from competing with Azmin Ali. Surely, as a journalist who's fond of using big words, he should be able to find a more plausible excuse?

But he needn't worry too much for Azmin Ali as Khalid has shown he didn't and as likely doesn't have the stomach to battle Azmin Ali in the party presidential stake. Khalid has been likened to a CEO of a state, and as a typical CEO he awaits higher directions from the Chairman of the Board, be he/she Anwar Ibrahim, Wan Azizah, Azmin Ali or as we have been told by RPK, currently HRH - see RPK's The Sultan's Menteri Besar.

What then? Who else is there to challenge Azmin Ali?

Well, since PKR has always boasted it's a multiracial party, what about Tian Chua (wakakaka), Sivarasa or that currently rather elusive (probably merajuking) Chua Jui Meng? wakakaka!

I suppose their individual chances of being nominated for and elected as PKR party president may be equated to a snowflake's chance in hell, wakakaka.

Azmin Ali is currently not very popular in his own party which probably has been why, as I suspect, his sidekick had announced postponement of PKR party election for this year.

Even four years ago, he was a man MOST UNwanted in Sabah where he was appointed by Anwar to be the PKR State chief. The locals took umbrage that ‘Kuala Lumpur’ (UMNO or PKR, WTF it's still those penjajahan dari barat lah) had again shafted a West Malaysian down their throat as their ‘leader’.

16 of PKR Sabah divisions lodged their lack of confidence in Azmin Ali. They want instead local boy Jeffrey Kitingan. For more, read Haris Ibrahim’s We want ketuanan rakyat, not ketuanan Melayu, in Sabah.

But far more troubling than this, had been the RPK article PKR is on self-destruct mode in Sarawak and Sabah which stated:

For example, Sabah is throwing a Hari Raya bash and Dr Jeffrey Kitingan has invited Zaid Ibrahim as their guest. Zaid has agreed to attend but there are those in PKR who do not want him to go. They want him to boycott the event to send a message to PKR Sabah that Kuala Lumpur is not supportive of Jeffrey.

If the PKR leadership thinks that Jeffrey should go then tell him so. Then let him go back to Barisan Nasional if this is what PKR wants. But to boycott his Hari Raya party and to order Zaid to not attend the event is not only childish but damaging the opposition cause as well.

It is time this nonsense stops. We just can’t treat the East Malaysians like we are their colonial masters.


It was the notorious PKR HQs obsession about centralised control and micro management of where, when or how a party member could fart.

Anyway, we all know of Anwar’s unreserved support of Azmin Ali thus I'm not revealing any State or PKR secret.

Azmin Ali’s ascendancy to become PKR’s No 2 has been charted by him personally (in this, he’s certainly ambitious, perhaps unrealistically outside his ability), and endorsed unquestioningly by Anwar Ibrahim.

He had in PKR's earlier years bulldozed both Nallakaruppan and Zaid Ibrahim aside in PKR party elections, naturally with the ‘help’ of Anwar and the inner coterie.

We learnt that in a PKR party election some years back, Anwar instructed Nalla not to contest the remaining VP position (out of 5) because the de facto leader wanted Azmin Ali to take up that post, a vital one for Azmin if he was 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, because when it comes to Azmin, Anwar would be blind.

But I wasn't surprised when the anwaristas in moronic auto-Myrmidon fashion 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 to the party as a far more suitable 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 showed he lacked the balls to 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 Azmin’s alarm. Azmin swiftly ‘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 had been far far more favoured than her by 'someone' – no, most certainly not at all surprised!

Thus, when Zaid saw both Khalid and Nurul decline to challenge Azmin, 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, fairly experience in politics and possessing commendable competency and character, one who would be unlikely to stand aside for him (Azmin) on Anwar’s say-so.

Today Zaid Ibrahim demonstrated his sterling courage in the face of fascist behaviour by some in the authority. He spoke out for the unjustly oppressed candidates for beauty pageants and a Malay dog lover, and for calling the state of Malaysia for what it has become today, a (Lite) Taliban State. It's PKR's loss.

From RPK’s Malaysia-Today we once 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 then 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. 


[Note: our dear Terence Netto wrote in above MKINI article that "There are something like 600,000 members on the party register, more than DAP’s 200,000-plus, much fewer than PAS’ 1 million strong outfit ..."]

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.


Ironical isn't it, that Azmin's legitimacy as PKR deputy president has far far far more dubious credentials than (the PKR argument of) Najib's legitimacy to be PM since BN was only supported by less than 50% (46%?) of Malaysian voters?

But because Azmin Ali has been supported, protected, endorsed and perhaps even pampered by Anwar Ibrahim for years, he usually got what he wanted. Since 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 would only be 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, including his blue-eyed boy, a junior within the Pakatan senior leadership ranks already packed with luminaries like Pak Haji Hadi Awang and various other personalities in PAS, and Karpal Singh, Lim KS, Lim GE and more in DAP.

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

I acknowledge that the current political situation won’t allow for a non-Malay PM, but I doubt that both PAS and DAP will accept Azmin Ali as the agreed leader of a post-Anwar Pakatan. It's too silly a notion to even write that down here as many see Azmin Ali as nothing more than a mere political pygmy.

Once (when Zaid Ibrahim was still in PKR) Richard Teo, one of Malaysiakini’s more serious and prolific letter-writers, wrote Why Zaid must be elected PKR's No 2, where he stated:

… the person who fills in the position of deputy president of PKR is of vital importance because that person could, in most probability, become the next prime minister of our country.

Zaid [Ibrahim] has proved his mettle. He relinquished his ministerial post from the government on a matter of principle. His vision and articulations on national issues resonate with people of different race and religion. On issues of vital importance he was not afraid to be vocal and candid. That is a mark of a great leader.

To deprive this man of serving this nation is not only a loss to PKR but a catastrophic loss to the nation at a time when our nation is in dire shortage of charismatic leaders.

I do not wish to disparage his opponent's ability to be a deputy president and I do not wish to undermine his ability to lead the nation if there are calls to do so. Azmin Ali's loyalty to Anwar and the party is without question.

He is young and has tremendous energy to garner support from the grassroots but when it comes to articulation of national issues I cannot remember a single occasion when he has made a stand. A leader who lacks the ability to articulate important issues publicly cannot be expected to lead. A person without vision cannot lead a nation because of his impairment to discern the path and route he has to take.

As a concerned citizen of this country, I humbly appeal to those who are empowered to elect the next deputy president of PKR to make your choice wisely because your choice could possibly determine the next elected prime minister of our country.

Well, poor Richard wasted his breath.

But today, PKR's leadership pool is in such a state of pathetic poor pitiful paucity and privation that if or when Anwar chooses to truly retire, (without someone of Zaid Ibrahim's calibre in its party) it has no credible Malay leader of some standing to replace him as a peer to PAS' and DAP's leaders in Pakatan. In such a sorry situation, it will spell the end of PKR.

17 comments:

  1. You would do well to take a close look at your beloved DAP's scandalous CEC election fiasco - which is leading it to inevitable de registration by the ROS, since DAP refuses to consider re holding the vote.

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    Replies
    1. if so then DAP will suffer from external attack unlike PKR which will implode wakakaka

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  2. DAP's demise, if it comes to that will not really be an external attack. ROS acts according to the law. It is DAP's self-inflicted destruction by holding its dishonest CEC elections, then refusing to consider the best corrective action - which is to rerun the vote. Obviously some hidden agendas within DAP.

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    1. almost everyone in Malaysia knows that RoS (like EC and the police) acts on the instructions of UMNO, and it's now intend on cacau-ing DAP out of vindictive malice and more importantly, for certain individual in UMNO party election

      The dishonest party elections have been those held by some parties, all from the same gene pool wakakaka

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  3. I'm a strong supporter of what Pakatan Rakyat says are its ideals - Clean, Competent, and Accountable Government.
    Which is why I have become angry and dissapointed with how events have turned out.
    PKR's earlier leadership elections and DAP's CWC elections have both turned out to be highly dishonest exercises - it is obvious the process and the results were manipulated to "ensure" the outome would meet the desired expectations of powerful people in both parties.

    If nothing changes, I'll probably join the GE Mahjong pool next General Elections.

    Very disappointed with PKR
    Very disappointed with DAP

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you're a strong supporter of Pakatan Rakyat I'm the Shahanshah of Iran wakakaka

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    2. LOL....KT, you have beaten me to it....I was about to declare that I'm the Czar of Russia, kakakaka ....Anyway, it is always those who protest the loudest...no more lies lah, no more bullshit lah, but it invariably turn out that they themselves are the biggest bullshitter !

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    3. I do not quite understand how the DAP elections are carried out. As it is not possible for all members to attend the elections, I guess it would be nominated delegates from all branches just like Umno's elections.

      Perhaps, Kaytee would be kind enough to give an overview and check out how the 700+ delegates/members could have been missed out on the elections. I would have thought that notice of elections would have been sent to all their branches and it is up to the branches to nominate their reps and inform them to attend.

      I also feel that these missed out members should have the interest of the party to enquire about their attendence before the elections and not complain after the event.

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  4. Malaysia already has a effective, proven and caring Federal government.

    PKR is irrelevant....they can go ahead and implode/explode/disintegrate for all I care...yawwwn....

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    1. Spoken like the true blue Umno loyal trooper ! Yes indeed...Federal gomen aka Umno gomen, is so devastatingly caring and effective that no amount of the highest praises heaped upon this sterling administration so far could do it justice ! Mr Kalai, please continue with your sturdy effort going into all the blogsites to counter all these nay sayers...your service to UMNO will be richly rewarded. Hopefully you will be awarded with a Datukship or even a Tansliship.

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    2. Yah...typical PKR or DAP cybertrooper...can't argue based on logic, just jump directly to personal attacks.

      Unlike you faceless Anon, I'm a real person, Kalai is the name on my IC.

      Delete
    3. Bravo ! Kalai the Real !

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    4. The country is falling down around our ears....crime rate worse than those in Africa, Fitch downgrade - (a very ominous sign), multiple warnings of national bankruptcy, the disparity between the have and have-nots one of the largest in the world, the utterly blatant racist and religious scaremongering by our very own leaders ( past and present ), the middle income trap that will cripple that very sector which is supposed to lead us out of this nightmare....this list is getting longer and more gloomy, and YET, our Mr Kalai nonchalantly declared..." Malaysia already has a effective, proven and caring Federal government".

      Is this the LOGIC he claimed to have put forth and scorned those who see through him for what he really is....a typical UMNO cybertrooper ! Pordah lah your so-called IC-name....yeah, so real that you can't even see your own illogical argument about the most corrupt, racist, incompetent, seditious and hypocritical government the poor citizens ever had the great misfortune to be under of.

      So get REALLY real lah, Mr Kalai....it's NOT in the name BUT what concrete arguments you put forth that's the real beef...who cares under what name you post as long as the contents are not full of sh*t ?

      PORDAH !

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  5. Anwar is a fool !
    Azmin is full of greed !
    PKR is doomed ?

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  6. Another pathetic attempt by the blog host to deflect the troubles within DAP vis a vis its election.

    SMH

    In reality, DAP and PKR - in at least how their elections were conducted - are 2 x 5. Birds of the same feather.

    Even the great idol of the DAP and their supporters - LKY - has opined that the marriage is nothing but one of convenience and mutual dislike for the corrupt BN, and not on any meaningful basis.

    What LKY is saying is that, irrespective of whether it's BN or PR, it would be the same because of the composition of the populace.

    And to DAP's credit, being the smarter and sneakier than the others, they are now trying to invade the Malays/Bumis territory, to an extent that Baru Bian has expressed his reservation.

    As I said, DAP knows they could rule with minority numbers. After all, the whole DAP is ruled by the minority Christian evangelists but the majority of the Chinese Buddhists are still excited with the whole idea that they could now rule Malaysia that they haven't noticed that they are now under the minority Christians.

    Sabahan18

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  7. Ktemoc,
    How remiss of you...so focused on tearing into PKR and Anwar Ibrahim , you forgot to wish your Muslim readers Selamat Hari Raya...

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    Replies
    1. wakakaka, my apologies. I plead mitigation as it's difficult to keep track of Malaysian festivities downunder. But selamat hari raya aidilfitri to all

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