A clash of two egos

Selangor pays the price of the Anwar-Khalid confrontation

COMMENT

By Syed Izzaddin Jaafar

The collision of an unstoppable force with an immovable object seems almost tenable when compared to a clash between a recalcitrant Menteri Besar and a petulant political animal.

What we have are two men, one a former company CEO and the other a scarred political veteran, engaged in a pissing contest to end all pissing contests. It is a spectacle to behold, if only Selangorians did not end up paying the price.

What gives them the right to toy with the lives of 5.4 million people, for political gain? These “alpha males” are in need of an industrial dose of Omega-3 to recharge whatever brain functions they may have left. They are dragging everyone down to their level.

Khalid Ibrahim, stop playing the victim here. There is no conspiracy against you. What we do have is a classic case of your time running out. For someone with your experience in the corporate world, you more than anyone else,ought to know that different situations require different styles of leadership.

It happens that what you have isn’t needed any longer. So just go. You are not bigger than the state, you happen to be expendable like everyone else.

As for Anwar Ibrahim, you are not Midas. What you touch does not always turn to gold.

In fact, the things you have touched in your career have often turned into incriminating evidence against yourself, whether fairly or not. This Kajang Move is another to add to your shelf of illustrious manoeuvres that have added up to nothing, unless chaos, discord and the possible break-up of Pakatan Rakyat are considered notable achievements.

It is Selangor that ends up suffering the most.

A state that has displayed the independence to break the shackles of the old order is now seeing the fading of the dream of even greater political maturity. That dream has been broken by immature men, acting just like the politicians that Selangorians despise, men who claim to carry the banner of reforms.

They are no reformers, they are merely remnants of the past. Their lack of relevance is made apparent by their failure to let go of personal ambition in a world that demands much more than that.