Can new Selangor exco move on from the bad blood of the past?

As newly sworn-in Menteri Besar Azmin Ali sets up his administration, there are rumblings among the parties of Pakatan Rakyat that show that the dust has not fully settled on the Selangor Menteri Besar imbroglio.

Azmin's decision to only appoint three PAS leaders to his executive council and the unease its causing in Selangor PAS are fuelling worries that relations between the PR partners in the new state government is getting off to a rocky start.

The fact that some parties are still calling certain leaders of other parties "traitors" – even when they have to work together in the same exco – reflects the lack of trust there is among PR partners.

If Azmin is unable to patch up relations between them and make his executive councillors work together, it is doubtful whether he can achieve his party's aim of redressing the wrongs of the menteri besar he replaced.

And most importantly, to convince people of Selangor that something good would come out of the crisis.

Under Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim’s leadership, PAS had four members, Cempaka assemblyman Iskandar Abdul Samad, Dr Yunus Hairi (Sijangkang), Sallehen Mukhyi (SabaK) and Dr Halimah Ali (Selat Klang).

Azmin retained Iskandar and Dr Yunus but dropped Sallehen and Dr Halimah. Taman Templer state assemblyman Mohd Zaidy Abdul Talib will be the third and newest member from PAS.

PAS will also get the deputy speaker’s post.

PKR went from having three seats on the council to having four members. They are Elizabeth Wong, Dr Daroyah Alwi, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad and Aminuddin Saari.

There are two possible reasons as to why this occurred.

According to a Selangor PKR leader, the downgrade for PAS is parallel to the loss of support it has in the Selangor assembly in total.

Before the menteri besar crisis, PAS held 15 seats. Now PAS is considered to have 13 seats.

This is since two of its assemblymen, Saari Sungib and Hasnul Baharuddin, ignored the party’s directive and decided to support PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as menteri besar.

It is learnt that the two are likely to be expelled and declared independent assembly members.

“So PAS really only has 13 seats. The two assemblymen from PAS are considered to be supporting us,” said a Selangor PKR leader Shuhaimi Shafiei.

“I think it is reflective of PAS’s position where it has only 13 seats compared to 15 in DAP and 14 in PKR.”

However, said Shuhaimi, PKR was still being fair to PAS by giving it the deputy speaker’s post.

“This is not punishment for siding with Khalid. It’s just reflective of PAS’s current position in the assembly.”

The second reason is that PKR wants to prevent another repeat of the crisis – where PAS was able to stay in government and seen to be supporting the expelled Khalid.

During the MB impasse several weeks back, PAS ordered its four exco members to continue to serve in Khalid’s cabinet because it wanted to protect the Selangor PR administration.

PAS had said that although the state executive council could be formed with a minimum of four members, its excos were there to prevent the state government from automatically dissolving and triggering state elections.

“If something happens again, PKR wants to be able to prevent any party from pulling the same stunt,” said a PKR source with knowledge of the party’s deliberations on choosing the exco members.

Selangor PAS secretary Mohd Khairuddin Othman has gone on record to state that the party does not agree with the reduction in the number of exco posts.

His boss, Datuk Mustafa Ali, on the other hand, said PAS accepts the decision with an open heart.

Whether this disappointment is going to translate into how the PAS exco members get along with Azmin and the PKR and DAP exco members is still unclear, but observers believe there will be some impact.

DAP lawmaker Dr Ong Kian Ming says the more important issue is whether the exco members will work well with Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali. – The Malaysian Insider pic, September 27, 2014.After all, DAP exco members will have to work with Iskandar and Dr Yunus, whom the party had labelled as "traitors" for working with Khalid.

“There will be some impact, but this is where Azmin has to show his leadership capabilities by bringing people together again so that his administration moves as one,” said Shuhaimi, the assemblyman for Sri Muda.

But Selangor DAP lawmaker Dr Ong Kian Ming believes the more important question is whether individual exco members can work together with Azmin.

“In each portfolio there will be an element of requiring support from the menteri besar to push something through. That is where the working relationship will come in,” said Ong, who is Serdang MP.

He said there is optimism in the DAP that Azmin will accomplish some of the work that had been stalled during Khalid’s administration, such as the appointment of local council heads and members.

Other issues that would need to be tackled would be reviewing the contentious hike in business licence fees and the plans to build new tolled highways in Selangor such as the Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex), said Ong.

But there also has to be a commitment from all three PR partners to get past the feuds that have broken out among them during the MB impasse, said Selangor PKR’s Shuhaimi.

“It’s unfair to simply blame people for following the orders of their party,” said Shuhaimi, referring to how the four PAS exco members had stayed with Khalid because PAS had ordered them to.

“Its pointless to train our guns on each other when the real traitors are Umno.”

- TMI