THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Yesterday, PKR issued a press release (READ HERE) requesting an audience with His Royal Highness the Sultan of Selangor. In that press statement, PKR said that the audience is to inform HRH the Sultan that party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has the support of 30 of the 56 ADUNs (State Assemblypersons) and that the party maintains its earlier stand that she should become the new Menteri Besar of Selangor.
Bad move! First of all, you should request an audience with HRH the Sultan by sending the Palace an official letter (not circulated to the public) and not by issuing a press release. The Sultan would not regard a press release as an official letter to the Palace and hence would just ignore the request.
Secondly, PKR stated in that press release that the party intends to meet the Sultan so that it can disagree with HRH. Since the Sultan already knows what the meeting is about and what PKR’s stand is, HRH need not bother to meet PKR just to, again, hear what the party is going to say.
Therefore we can assume that the meeting is not going to be held before Tuesday next week when the new Selangor Menteri Besar is going to be sworn in.
PKR is arguing its case with the Palace by saying that Pakatan Rakyat has a consensus on the selection of Dr Wan Azizah as the new MB. However, 30 out of 56 ADUNs is not a consensus. A consensus would have to be at least 44 (or 43 if minus Khalid Ibrahim).
So the consensus is a lie.
Even if PKR wants to argue that the consensus is not based on the 43 ADUNs but based on the three parties in Pakatan Rakyat — PKR, DAP and PAS — this, too, is a lie because while PKR and DAP agree on just one name, PAS, however, has submitted three names.
So this so-called three-party consensus is a lie as well.
PKR and DAP blame PAS for the current crisis, which has seen a serious split in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition. No doubt when Khalid was nominated as the Selangor Menteri Besar in 2008 and 2013 it was done on consensus. But when the Kajang Move was mooted it was not done on consensus. This was a sole decision of PKR.
Hence PAS cannot be accused of having betrayed the consensus since there was none.
The Kajang Move was not a consensus so PAS has not betrayed any consensus. The only consensus was in 2008 and 2013 when Khalid was nominated as the MB and no new consensus was reached since then.
PAS may have agreed to a new consensus that Dr Wan Azizah shall be the new MB to replace Khalid but this consensus was reached only after PKR announced that she would be the new MB. Hence PKR made the announcement before and not after the consensus was reached. And hence, also, PKR did not give PAS any choice in the matter other than to just agree and say ‘yes’.
Nevertheless, while PAS may have agreed after the fact to Dr Wan Azizah, that agreement was reached before the letter from the Palace saying that HRH the Sultan wants at least three names and will not accept only one name.
That means the consensus on just one name is already outdated and events have overtaken that agreement. The new development is that the Sultan wants at least three names and not just one. So PAS can no longer be held to an agreement that goes against the wishes of the Palace unless PAS wants to tell the Sultan to go to hell.
PKR is telling the Sultan that Pakatan Rakyat’s wish is for Dr Wan Azizah to become the new MB. This is not Pakatan Rakyat’s wish. In fact, it is not even PKR’s wish. It is Anwar Ibrahim’s wish and many in PKR do not really agree to that.
Hence this is all about one man, Anwar Ibrahim, and one man’s wishes, Anwar Ibrahim’s. Not everyone in PKR agree with this. And for sure not everyone in PAS and DAP agree with this as well.
And HRH the Sultan knows this.
Anwar is hiding behind the so-called Pakatan Rakyat consensus, meaning the 30 Statutory Declarations. HRH, however, knows that not all the 30 ADUNs who signed their SDs did so willingly. Many were forced to sign their SDs under duress. They had no choice but to sign or else, like Khalid, they would be sacked from the party.
If HRH the Sultan were to call their bluff and summons the 30 ADUNs one-by-one to the Palace to be asked what their real stand is, around four or five, if not more, will back out and say they are not committed to the SD that they signed.
It is now very clear that Dr Wan Azizah does not have the confidence of the majority in the House. She does not have 30 ADUNs, as Anwar is bluffing us. In fact, she does not even have 25. And Anwar is worried that if HRH chooses Azmin as the new MB, Dr Wan Azizah will not even have 20 ADUNs to stand in support of her.
Anwar knows this. HRH the Sultan also knows this and knows that Dr Wan Azizah is not PKR’s choice but Anwar’s choice. Hence the Palace has made it known that the next MB is not going to be a woman. And to counter this, PKR has just issued a press statement as below:
KENYATAAN MEDIA
The Malaysian Insider telah menerbitkan satu laporan hari ini bertajuk ‘Anwar nod for Azmin to be Selangor MB’.
Saya ingin menegaskan bahawa pendirian rasmi KEADILAN mengenai isu perlantikan Menteri Besar Selangor yang baru tidak berubah, sama seperti yang telah saya nyatakan dalam kenyataan media semalam. Sebarang laporan lain, terutama dari sumber tidak rasmi, adalah tidak berasas.
Saifuddin Nasution Ismail
Setiausaha Agung
Parti Keadilan Rakyat
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