A response to PAS’s Khalid Samad – Rip Van Winkle

Quite interesting what PAS’s Khalid Samad had to say on the Selangor crisis, shedding his light on the intestinal machinations of the goings-on behind closed doors.

But it does not shed enough light to suggest the crisis is even halfway to being resolved. In fact Khalid Samad’s “revelations” raise more questions than they provide convincing answers.

Here are a few, in chronological form:

(1) The Kajang “Kacang” Move, engineered by Anwar Ibrahim, was designed to remove Khalid Ibrahim. But the people were told from the very beginning that it was designed to keep Umno's clutches off the Selangor state which it was planning to snatch back by insidious means. So Anwar Ibrahim and his PKR lackeys deliberately lied to the people. Fact or fiction?

(2) The Kajang “Kacang” Move was in fact designed about an individual and that individual was Anwar Ibrahim from the start. Rafizi Ramli, another Anwar lackey, paraded Anwar Ibrahim as the only person in Malaysia who could stop Umno's grubby hands from retaking Selangor. So, again, Khalid Samad, this is another deliberately lie to the faces of the people. Yes or no?

(3) Until this point, Anwar Ibrahim and his lackeys made no mention of Khalid Ibrahim as being their chief target of the Kajang “Kacang” Move. This came only after Anwar Ibrahim faced the real possibility of jail for Sodomy Part II. Then Khalid Ibrahim was painted as Anwar Ibrahim and his lackey's target. So, if this is not another deliberately lie, then deliberate misleading of the people. Fact or fiction?

(4) At this point Azmin Ali, Anwar's poodle, starting playing up, kicking up a fuss about Khalid Ibrahim and Azmin Ali's directorship in Selangor PKNS from which, Azmin Ali claimed loudly, Khalid Ibrahim was stealthily organising to remove him. This was when people got a pretty good whiff of one if not more power struggles within PKR. Yes or no?

(5) Wan Azizah won Kajang (after Anwar Ibrahim was forced to withdraw) and, like it or not, some of us knew it wouldn't be too long before she would be shoved to the forefront to take over the chief ministership of Selangor. And for weeks later, Azmin Ali's name as a possible candidate, nominated by Anwar Ibrahim specifically, did not make it to the full round of the rumour-mill. Unhappy being in the shadows, Azmin Ali started to play up even more, acting like a petulant child. This forced Anwar Ibrahim's hand at keeping Azmin Ali in mind as MB compromise candidate (a reward for long-time loyalty) if Wan Azizah were to run into trouble. And she did. Fact or fiction?

(6) PAS still does not want Wan Azizah as MB of Selangor because PAS's Islam says women are disallowed from holding such posts in 21st century “modern” Malaysia. So Azmin Ali, Anwar's pet poodle, looks like he will get the gong if the sultan of Selangor again rejects Wan Azizah (he may reject Azmin Ali too since Azmin Ali is deep in Anwar Ibrahim's pockets and, moreover, it is no state secret that the sultan will not give the time of day to Anwar Ibrahim and his family and cronies). Yes or no?

(7) Which leaves PAS with the upper hand in a still massively unresolved Selangor crisis. Because PAS could bypass Azmin Ali altogether and name its own candidate from within its own ranks or PKR's, depending on how the power struggles inside PAS play out. Fact or fiction?

(8) If PAS gains a greater sphere of influence, will it force PKR to play second fiddle to PAS – which is another growing aspect of the power struggles and dissensions between both parties (of course the DAP backs PKR because it can't stand PAS and does not trust the Islamist fundamentalist party)? Yes or no?

(9) I haven't even begun to map out the state palace's politics in this ongoing saga (quagmire), or Umno's for that matter...

(10) But the quick refocus (post-PAS's decision) on attacking Khalid Ibrahim's personal and political character (rather than his real performance as MB) is aimed at continuing the delineation of the Kajang “Kacang” Move narrative so as to be adjudged as “just” and not as a deliberate underhanded move by PKR's Three Wise Men and Pakatan as a whole.

Conclusion, Khalid Samad: The Kajang “Kacang” Move was a grand lie perpetrated by Anwar Ibrahim and his lackeys with a DAP supporting cast and PAS playing a role in this until two weeks ago. And there's the real big split in Pakatan.

This is when PAS's own power struggle revealed disagreement on whether to back Anwar Ibrahim (the Erdogan faction) or shoo him away (Hadi Awang’s faction).

But PAS has since worked out the political equation, in a linear regression model, that the sultan – the independent variable – may still give PAS some political advantage in this crisis (and I'm thinking Umno too). Hence PAS’s dualistic nomination – not Wan Azizah “and” Azmin Ali but Wan Azizah (who to PAS has no chance whatsoever) “or” Azmin Ali (though with only half-hearted support).

Fact or faction?

* Rip Van Winkle reads The Malaysian Insider.