The Selangor upheaval

What we are seeing is a messy and chaotic exercise of democratic principles at play.

COMMENT

With the deadline of September 3rd for sending in nominees to the Palace well and truly over, Pakatan Rakyat has yet to come to a consensus on who should head the Selangor state government, leaving its fate very much in the hands of the Sultan.

Since August 26, when the Sultan asked for three nominees from each of the components of Pakatan and amidst the frantic intra-party consultations and inter-party horse trading, the reality is that PKR, DAP and PAS have drifted further apart from their original positions.

PAS Secretary General Mustafa Ali’s statement to Harakah yesterday did little to clear the air for the Selangor public, who very much want to see an end to this debacle over the appointment of a new Menteri Besar to replace the outgoing Khalid Ibrahim. Mustafa said that PAS had complied with the Sultan’s decree that each party send in at least three names, without elaborating on who those three names were but he did add that the letter went directly to the palace from PAS president Hadi Awang’s office. It is debatable if Mustafa was even privy to the contents of the letter or if he was putting on an elaborate show to get media hounds off his back.

Is Hadi obediently acceding to the royal dictate or is he using the office of party president to act unilaterally on behalf of PAS? Either way, it looks like a betrayal to the Pakatan cause, and increasingly that Hadi is willing to test options other than those offered by the coalition.

It must feel like a stab in the back for PKR, who has stood steadfastly to its position of a sole nominee to the palace in Wan Azizah. DAP has consistently supported PKR in this respect, as it does not have a contender of its own in this contest.

What we are seeing in progress is a messy and chaotic exercise of democratic principles at play. Inevitably there will be dire consequences for Pakatan as a viable electoral alternative going forward.

If we put aside the self-interests and aspirations of political parties for a moment, we see that each of the players seems to be testing to the limits the boundaries of constitutionalism and giving new meanings and definitions to what is Malaysian democracy amidst a traditionally conservative system of a monarchy which is heavily reliant on absolute discretion to achieve any outcome.

More interesting, this less than ideal transition is showing the public what it is to have two opposing tectonic forces grate against each other – monarchical discretion on one side and players confined by the rules of constitutional democracy on the other. Someone or something has to give before the earthquake and tremors will die down and equilibrium settle in.