Did Azmin get Anwar’s green light?

If the opposition leader would only backtrack to keep the MBship within PKR, we may see some sanity return.

COMMENT

Unsubstantiated reports of an eleventh hour development within PKR appears to have given the local grapevine a new twist. The rumour mill has been supercharged with the news that Azmin Ali has received the seal of approval from opposition chief Anwar Ibrahim to vie for the Selangor Menteri Besar’s (MB) post.

If at all true, it would be a last ditch attempt to avert a deeper crisis by keeping the coveted post within PKR. It would indicate that PKR bigwigs have decided to take a more compliant stance and backtrack on their insistence that the palace should accept Wan Azizah’s sole candidacy for the post of MB.

Protocol aside, this hypothetical move would bring about much needed sanity to the fledgling coalition as the component parties have been at odds with one another from the onset of the fiasco now 10 months old. It is still not settled yet as the palace seems to be on a fixed course to make the announcement to drown out all other announcements this coming Monday.

If only the rumour were true, it would bring some promise that the Sultan of Selangor may look at this as a genuinely deprecating gesture and concession to his role as the final arbiter in the selection of a candidate to head the state administration.

It has always been a moot point that the candidacy of Wan Azizah was only going to be as viable as a PAS candidacy. Even with her 30 statutory declarations, she needs the palace’s seal of approval to legitimise her appointment. How would she run the state administration without the Sultan’s tacit approval when she can’t even get an audience with him?

The day to day administration of the affairs of the state would require regular visits to the palace by the MB to consult with and offer advice to the Sultan. It would be difficult to envisage such a scenario coming to pass under the circumstances.

It may be interesting to observe the outcome of a constitutional struggle to better define the role of a Sultan within a constitutional democracy, and it has not gone unnoticed that former prime minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad has been pouring fuel on the fire with his repeated statements that he only ever presented one MB candidate with no objection from any of the rulers during his tenure as PM. But the crisis in Selangor has been spared this titanic clash of constitutionalism versus monarchism for the time being, at least until we see whom the Sultan anoints as Khalid Ibrahim’s successor and who takes umbrage from the Sultan’s action.

The Tun may not have long to wait to witness his arch-nemesis being ground into dust under the heel of sovereign might if things continue along its present course.

If the announcement that Azmin has received Anwar’s approval proves untrue, we then need to ask ourselves what and who originated this untruth. Are we seeing a suspected dissident or dissidents within PKR attempting to come out of the closet?

As the rumour mill has alluded, the logic of the sovereign ruler picking a PAS candidate to fill the power vacuum at the head of the Selangor administration would be less than a stop gap measure as it is common knowledge that the rakyat requires a stable government and a PAS MB would be transitory at best without the support of the state assembly. Therefore a PKR home team player would be the best option to don the jersey of PR to quell the boos of the supporters. So it may be said that the palace has played a deft role at refereeing the match and bringing the unruly players into order and allowing the match to carry on to its ultimate conclusion without having to resort to a rematch to settle old scores.

We must now wait till Monday to see to whom the Sultan officially gives the ball.