The Chaos that is PKR

Let's leave the pigs, pork and kangkung of Pet of the God Seth the Lord of Chaos aside for a while and venture into Selangor where a different darker ancient history of Chaos exists wakakaka and which is currently in turbulent truculent turmoil.

First, read TMI's:

(a) Kajang assemblyman says his resignation will strengthen Pakatan Rakyat and

(b) PAS, DAP lawmakers split on PKR candidate for Kajang by-election

It's all good and well for Lee Chin Cheh to say his resignation as ADUN for Kajang is for the good of Pakatan Rakyat and would strengthen the coalition's position in Selangor ... but hasn't he by his unjustified action messed around with the Kajang voters' trust in him, having elected him as their representative just a mere 8 months ago. 

In the final analysis, what is really the purpose of his politically drastic move, if not for just the personal ambitions and gratifications of PKR warlords!

Let's not mince words in that Lee's resignation has quite a bit to do with PKR's difficulties with Khalid Ibrahim as MB and the latter's intra-party feud with Azmin Ali.

While I don't trust Azmin Ali an iota, I have to admit that the other party, namely Khalid Ibrahim, has not been politically as snow white as we might have wished for, though he is certainly still popular with the public, the very opposite of his bête noire, wakakaka.

From my personal perception, Khalid Ibrahim has gradually metamorphosed from being a not-very-politically-conscious MB (which was both his weakness and his strength) to being a MB who, alas, believes he is answerable to only one person, ...

... and that person is not Anwar Ibrahim wakakaka or Dr Wan Azizah or the collective ADUNs of Pakatan, the representatives of the rakyat of Selangor.

I sense that somehow, perhaps in his business-corporate success for the state in amassing huge amount of assets and his consequential new-found 'enlightenment' wakakaka, he unconsciously became detached from the body politics proper - see my post Royal president Khalid Ibrahim?

In that post, I discussed how Khalid was right royally (wakakaka) chewed out by Gobind Singh Deo for saying he the MB 'listens to criticisms from the people more than from party leaders and politicians'.

Gobind said Khalid had made a 'very serious statement, which may have serious consequences', referring to Khalid's pompous but incorrect understanding of the parliamentary process, where ADUNs, the rakyat's elected representatives, rather than his so-called and totally unspecified 'people', should be listened to, at least officially.

Gobind then twisted the Westminster doctrinal knife into Khalid a bit more by adding that 'Khalid must not take things for granted. I ask him to respond and clarify matters', wakakaka!

In my post Killing Khalid softly ..... I wrote:

Incidentally, Khalid is, as I was informed, currently riding high in HRH's estimates, which may explain what I perceive as his lack of usual deference to his old sponsor, Anwar Ibrahim, wakakaka, and his unusual arrogance towards other Pakatan component parties. Nowadays he is seen to be MB-ing with an unusual blustering confidence. For more, read Selangor saga shows PKR's ketuanan mentality?

And that may explain what I wrote in my post Khalid Ibrahim in political peril? in which I quoted Anwar saying (only as claimed by an unnamed PKR source who you all know, wakakaka):

“I am not in a position to defend the MB anymore. There is no discussion, no consideration, he thinks it is his state, he is in control.”

“No one knows his stand, he does not refer to anyone, no one knows ... So we have a problem.”

“There is no discussions on the water issue. I do not know (about it), I have to read the papers (to keep track of developments).”

“The Allah issue also, I do not know anything about it until today. Nothing!"

If the above have been true, then Anwar has effectively withdrawn his support for Khalid Ibrahim, a man he had personally persuaded to leave the corporate world to join his PKR.

While not denying that Khalid Ibrahim has to an extent been politically naive and as Gobind Singh Deo took pains to point out, pompously incorrect in his more recent mindset, he is in the end not a bad bloke or MB.

Anwar Ibrahim counselling him would have been the more appropriate and better course of action, but then PKR's aim seems more to remove him from the MB position than to make him a better MB. It's a bloody waste of talent but that's the dirty-ness of intra-party politics, more so than the inter-party variety, where domination (and taking sides) beats talent anytime.

sorry lah, have to support him, that bloke, hope you'll understand

wakakaka

Thus Khalid's rather abrupt loss of support from Anwar depicts (most lamentably) the real power in PKR ..... as was also hurtfully discovered by Zaid Ibrahim, Ezam (once AI's right hand man), Kalla (once AI's best buddy), Gobala (once AI's most devoted supporter), Jeffrey Kitingan, etc etc etc, showing that being AI's whatever-man won't save the person once the real Force in PKR decides on his or her fate!

With Anwar's withdrawal of his support, Khalid's political position has turned fatal. So it wasn't surprising to read TMI informing us that The Star has reported Khalid agreeing to resign as the MB in the near future, and is expected to announce his decision on Wednesday (tomorrow?).

Whatever, the depth, degree and direness of the unmitigated acrimony in PKR's internal feud have been such that the party couldn't even wait until Khalid Ibrahim makes his announcement to exit the political arena, but has taken the drastic action of persuading Lee to resign from his Kajang state seat ..... without an iota of respect and consideration for the people of the Kajang state constituency.

Alas, impatience has been a notable and sad element in PKR's leadership, one which I opined had lost Anwar Ibrahim his prime-ministership on the very eve of his ascendancy - see my post The torment and impatience of Anwar Ibrahim.

I just hope for Pakatan's sake this current and unjustified impatience to hasten the ouster (and perhaps even humiliation) of Khalid Ibrahim by having Lee resigned so as to facilitate a new PKR candidacy for MB will not cause PKR another humongous loss.

It's of course too much to dream of getting the member for Bukit Antarabangsa to resign instead, wakakaka, which would probably have brought greater peace and stability to PKR and thus to Pakatan.

Now, if Anwar Ibrahim is as rumoured slated to stand for election in Lee's vacated state seat, and he subsequently wins and is then nominated by Pakatan to be the new MB of Selangor, his candidacy may well encounter problems with HRH as he is not a Selangorean (as neither is Azmin Ali).

I'm not sure about the constitutionality of such a requirement for a MB of a sultanate state to be a person born in that state, but I reckon it might be a political-state convention, perhaps imposed for decades by the HRH of every sultanate state. Perhaps our constitutional expert Prof Bari may have something to say on this.

But even if there's nothing in the state or federal constitution to require this, HRH may play mighty hard ball as we witnessed previously in both Perlis and Terengganu post 2008 elections, and in the process perhaps shake up and/or destabilize the Pakatan state government.

It has been popularly touted that Dr Mahathir had de-fanged the rulers, but lately the rulers have, like lizards do with their lost tails, regrown their fangs as well as claws, wakakaka.

So can Anwar (or Rafizi Ramli) bulldoze his MB candidacy through despite possible objection (rejection) by HRH? That would be something to see, wakakaka.

Secondly, let me just say this (again as my personal opinion): I don't believe Anwar Ibrahim will make a good MB as both his personal character and his ambitions don't equip him well to handle small-picture politics, and small-picture politics is what a MB of a state will be involved with.

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.

He will get bored with the administration of state issues and in all probability, hand over his MB duties to 'someone' wakakaka - perhaps all very gnam gnam for a party that indulges in de facto-ism, wakakaka.

Okay then, the other PKR name being touted to replace Khalid Ibrahim as the MB of Selangor is whiz kid Rafizi Ramli. I opine Rafizi will not be a good choice as he is:

(a) far too important to be tied down with the issues of one state when he is more useful and required at federal level politics as we have been fortunate to witness, all to Rafizi's credit and growing reputation (he is a likely future PM, more so than the putative Princess Reformasi). Being required in both federal and state roles (the latter as a very involved state MB) will be too much of a burden for young Rafizi and will also dilute his input at both levels, and

(b) far too young and junior compared to some senior and very capable PAS ADUNs like Saari Sungib, who told TMI that PKR cannot ignore PAS and DAP on Lee's replacement as the choice will affect the Selangor Pakatan government, more so if Lee's replacement will be proposed as the new MB.

No doubt this has been a subtle warning from PAS that it too can exert its equal claim to the MB-ship, and that's not an unfair ask as PAS after all has 15 ADUNs compared to PKR's 14 (now 13).

Will PKR's arrogant heedlessness of PAS' interests in Selangor be the beginning of a centrifugal effect on the future of Pakatan? It has the makings of an UMNO wet dream, wakakaka.

PKR's disregard of PAS' feelings about fair and equal (time) share of Selangor's MB-ship, has in many ways been due to its ciri2 ketuanan yang menonjol (wakakaka). Yes, PKR has an outrageous sense of proprietorship on the MB's position when PAS could well equally exert its claim/share of that position - see my post Selangor saga shows PKR's ketuanan mentality? wakakaka.

Now, of the three Pakatan partners, DAP has been rather (unusually) quiet and passive in this affair, merely saying Lee's resignation and thus replacement is up to PKR, which of course is correct on an inter-party basis.

But one cannot help but wonder whether DAP's seemingly meek nod to Lee's unnecessary resignation - when Khalid may be about to exit from the political arena (I doubt very much a man like him will want to remain as a PKR backbencher) - also extends to any PKR proposal for one of its ADUNs to be the rumoured new MB, whether this be Anwar, Azmin or Rafizi (aside from HRH's approval)?

Again I wonder whether it's due to its lack of preparedness or even keenness for a PAS ADUN to become the new MB for Selangor, unlike its implicit acceptance of Salahuddin Ayub's designation as the Pakatan 2013 MB of Johor but which expectation didn't materialize as UMNO managed to hold on to that state.

The 2008 case in Perak was different because it didn't have much of a say in the selection of the state MB when it was presented with the state regent's (Raja Nazrin) choice of Nizar Jamaluddin as a fait accompli, but which however proved to be delightfully serendipitous.

In the current religiously inflammable brouhaha, I wonder whether DAP is musing (hypothetically speaking of course, wakakaka): 'WTF, none of our Selangor ADUNs can be the MB, and as PKR will probably provide religiously the less difficult (new) MB, let's back and accept the PKR's candidate notwithstanding its annoying ketuanan nature. It'll be the lesser of two evils.' [wakakaka].

... unless HRH shocks all of us by declaring DAP can nominate a non to be MB, wakakaka. Now, won't that just put the cat among the pigeons, wakakaka.

Finally, in this perhaps somewhat (I concede) arrogant Pakatan-centric discussion, we may have forgotten that BN is hardly likely to stay out of the by-election for the Kajang state seat which must be held within 60 days of the EC being informed of Lee's resignation.

Last year, Lee obtained 19,571 votes to defeat his clansman Lee Ban Seng of BN who received 12,747 votes, with a winning majority of 6824. It's certainly a daunting majority for BN to overcome but what if BN poured all its resources plus plus (wakakaka) to achieve a moral* victory, then how many more PKR ADUNs will have to resign until PKR's Chosen One can win in the by-election?

* Pakatan holds 44 of the 56 Selangor state seats so a loss in Kajang won't change the Pakatan state government but will inflict enormous loss of morale among Pakatan people and provide a boost for UMNO and Najib.

Najib is known for his far greater cunning than anyone in PKR, inclusive of the Døkkálfar Dwarf wakakaka, and thus always poses a clear and present danger to Pakatan as he did some years ago in Perak. Why provide an opening in Kajang for him? 

Addendum:

(1) TMI - Barisan will contest in Kajang by-election, says Muhyiddin

(2) TMI - I don’t know what’s happening in Selangor, says Guan Eng

(3) FMT - PAS mahu tuntut kerusi MB jika Khalid turun - wakakaka!

(4) MKINI - PAS sees red, Youth mulls Kajang polls boycott