Selangor Crisis: The Movie

The cast of Pakatan actors keep going and going, even though the director is yelling “cut, cut, cut!”

COMMENT

How many more ways are there to relate to this Selangor saga?

The main stars of this movie have yet to show any sign of fatigue, even as the Selangor electorate who have been sucked into this whirlwind want an end to it.

Embattled Menteri Besar (MB) Khalid Ibrahim appears unperturbed by PKR president Wan Azizah’s declaration that she has 30 supporters for her cause.

On Thursday, Selangor state assemblymen Saari Sungib and Hasnul Baharuddin of PAS decided to break away from the constraints of party protocol to pitch in their support for Wan Azizah. They run the risk of severe action from PAS’ disciplinary board now.

At a media conference attended by PKR and DAP bigwigs, they said that this was their last ditch attempt to end the stalemate that was ripping the Pakatan coalition apart, and that they were prepared to face the music.

Yesterday PAS vice president Husam Musa came out with an impassioned plea to Khalid to stop using PAS as his tool to stay in power.

Husam said Khalid’s unilateral decision to sack all Exco members from the council except PAS’s four was suggestive to the public that PAS had already thrown its support behind him when the reality couldn’t be farther from the truth, as the Central Working Committee (CWC) had yet to decide on anything.

Meanwhile, CWC member Dzulkefly Ahmad described the actions of the two maverick PAS assemblymen in supporting Wan Azizah as a godsend to save the Pakatan pact and the government of Selangor.

Khalid must have surmised that he wouldn’t have to fend off a no-confidence motion against himself until the State Assembly begins its third session in November.

Unless, of course. the Sultan of Selangor says otherwise.

It’s hard to imagine the astute Khalid miscalculating the house support he actually commands, but one has little doubt the Sultan has been duly and correctly apprised of the most recent developments by his personal staff, to clear up any misconception.

The next big milestone for watchers should be the PAS meeting tomorrow. Another great reckoning should also be in the offing after the Sultan’s return from overseas on August 27.

That’s an exceedingly long time in politics, and the people will have to endure the gale strength storms raging across the local media.

Overworked journalists and commentators seem the order of the day while the Selangor crisis continues to rage on, with no signs of abating.

The day-by-day instalment of this dark drama will fizzle out at its own pace, but it is suspect if the players are anywhere near the conclusion.

These were once restrained members of PAS, who were set to replace Umno’s ethnocentric thrusts with their piety and religious conformity. But they now appear to be fraying away from the safe fabric of party conventions.

Could this be the dawning of a new era for PAS, or is it merely a voicing of frustrations from a repressed faction? These are the unexpected consequences of the Kajang initiative.

The clear beneficiaries of this Pakatan implosion would be none other than BN.

Yet ironically, this dramatic mini-series bears the hallmark of having been scripted, directed, produced and sponsored in-house.

This is no slick Leonardo DiCaprio flick, but more of a clumsy, back-door, garage production, in which the Pakatan cast keep going and going, even though the director is yelling “cut, cut, cut!”