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Sunday, August 17, 2014

A decision, for sure? – Rip Van Winkle



So it has come, a decision that PAS promised to befall on this day. A decision which PAS said will seal the future of Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim as Selangor chief minister, if that is what he was after PKR unceremoniously sacked him.

PAS now says it's time for Khalid to get on his bike, though he may have other ideas. He won’t budge until the Selangor Sultan puts him on the bike himself. So another ten days of ifs and buts and perhaps even, maybes.

Nonetheless, questions abound.

Thus my preliminary thoughts:

This PAS decision just now, of nominating Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah, wife of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and PKR president, and Azmin Ali, the same party’s number two, as the next Selangor chief minister. Is it a decision or is it a decision of sorts? Is the Selangor crisis resolved, closed to being resolved or does it still have some way to run?

I’m no bomoh or tea-leaves reader but there are some things in this decision, if that’s what it is, that are puzzling, to say the least.

Take the nomination of Dr Wan Azizah and Azmin Ali: did PAS say Wan Azizah as MB and Azmin Ali as deputy MB, or was it more the case of Dr Wan Azizah [or] Azmin?

The first has some degree of clarity about it, assuming is the intended message by PAS. The second is as clear as mud. Who does PAS want? Wan Azizah or Azmin?

Given PAS earlier saying that their Islamism forbids a woman in that post, therefore one can assume, until PAS makes it as clear as spring water, that it prefers Azmin.

But this opens up a series of other pressing questions for both PAS and PKR and indeed for Pakatan going forward. If PAS prefers Azmin Ali, it is displaying its sexist idiocy, again.

That’s one question of integrity and credibility for PAS to deal with in the face of voters, particularly female voters and some men too.

The other issue is that PAS’s preference for Azmin over Dr Wan Azizah means only that Azmin is not quite their choice either. How come? Because "preference" does not mean "want". Does it?

And if I am right about this, then I foresee a time in the future when PAS may withdraw its support for Azmin if certain policies, loosely framed, do not go in its favour.

Because, having placed itself in the position of the decider – the terminator – PAS may think that PKR and DAP owe it to PAS to play top dog in state politics and, who knows, maybe in time even over national political decision-making. Assuming, of course, that Pakatan does not disintegrate before the 2018 polls.  There’s still a chance of that happening.

Pakatan, by any measure, isn’t out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot. What this crisis, and this PAS decision, has done is raise more questions and solve old and existing ones. It opens up a new can of worms for Pakatan.

Because now PAS can play wedge politics. For PAS this is where it may have calculated a week or two ago it wanted to be - in the driver’s seat. And if PAS is given the license, now by default, to play a more influential role in Selangor politics, it will have the quiet blessings of the Selangor Sultan.

After all, it would not be too far fetched that PKR is on the Sultan’s nose big-time and the DAP is maligned by him.

So, by the PAS decision just now, is the Selangor crisis over, finally?
* Rip Van Winkle reads The Malaysian Insider.

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