Anwar must decide on Azmin

He only just has time to get rid of an upstart once and for all, and hope that it will be enough to save PKR from certain demise.

COMMENT

Our nation bleeds copiously from the wounds inflicted upon it by those who think themselves fit to be leaders of this country of ours. Wounds inflicted upon our nation by pretenders to the thrones and who are at best, suffering from delusions of grandeur as a result of their inability to comprehend their own self worth.

Many walk the corridors of powers in Putrajaya where Barisan Nasional rules and some walk the alleyways in Penang, Kedah, Kelantan and Selangor – states that Pakatan Rakyat now rule. Some have the audacity to think themselves crown prince of the realm they are now in, Menteri Besar- designate of the state their party now controls and some imagine themselves future ministers in a Pakatan Rakyat government.

One of these upstarts that I speak of is Azmin Ali from PKR. The same Azmin that seems to have an almost magical hold over Anwar Ibrahim. The same Azmin who today is the target of gutter politics directed yet again at PKR.

And in all of this, Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim choses to stand clear as his nemesis inches towards his own end. “Ahhhh” said Khalid, “retribution has finally comes to those that had seek my demise earlier – God is truly great”!

I have never been one for gutter politics because there is a bit of that ‘gutter’ factor in everyone of us – lest the same is directed towards our ownselves as all it takes is for someone to dig deep enough and all will be revealed. But what if ‘gutter politics’ reveals the unsuitability of Azmin to be a leader within PKR and of Selangor?

Rahim Thambi Chik was never convicted of being a paedophile but he was ousted as Chief Minister of Malacca because the evidence against him overwhelmingly convicted him in the eyes of the public so much so that even Umno had to bow down to the inevitable and agreed that he had to go.

And now Azmin is confronted with the same situation with the allegations of sexual impropriety with a woman who is not his wife.

The YouTube re Anwar and Azmin’s antics at Bersih 3.0 had 600,000 hits within a few days of it being uploaded. Today it has over two million.

These are numbers Anwar cannot ignore and I would hazard an educated guess that by now Anwar is also faced with the same pressure on the video re Azmin situation. You can line up all the usual suspect to back up Azmin position within PKR but there is no denying that if public opinion is to be considered, this is the time for Anwar to decide how PKR can be rid of Azmin.

No room for error

Obviously there is Nurul to be considered but what other ‘considerations’ would Anwar still has to consider in trying to prop up Azmin’s position within PKR?

It will be for Anwar to decide. PKR is almost at death’s door. Terminal is too kind a word to use. When someone is terminally ill, there are still ways and means to make him or her comfortable while waiting for their final hours to release them from their pain and suffering.

Not for PKR. All its problems are now being played out on the public domain. For Anwar there is no room for error, no room for friendship, no room for special consideration. Anwar only has time to do a surgical cut and rid PKR of Azmin once and for all, and then let PKR lick its wound and hope that he has done enough to save PKR from certain demise.

DAP is silent on matters unfolding within PKR for it knows better then to allow itself to be pulled into the vortex of a sex scandal that would obliterate all that lies within its path and its wake. Kit Siang and Karpal are wise enough to understand that DAP must stay clear of an imploding PKR.

PAS is facing its own internal struggle with the momentum for the removal of Tok Guru Nik Aziz and Husam musa gaining ground even as I write this. So faced with its own internal conflict PAS will be quiet unless Abdul Hadi Awang finds himself irresistibly drawn to the possibility of being complicit in the ousting of Azmin and possibly Anwar but methinks Hadi already has his hands full with what is happening within PAS today.

Now is all this drama Najib’s doing? Anwar is shown to have done the dishonourable thing during Bersih 3.0. Azmin finds himself compromised with a member of the opposite sex who happens to not be his wife.

PAS finds itself embroiled in an internal power struggle that seeks to oust Tok Guru – and in all this DAP keeps silent because to do otherwise will surely damm DAP to take sides in the faction within PAS and PKR – surely a damm if you do and damm if you don’t situation for DAP. What part has Najib played in all this?

Najib’s game

Is not this just what the doctor would have ordered for Najib to make Umno and BN well again?

And a few weeks back Najib decided that September was the month for him to call for the 13th GE because the time was right. Right because Pakatan Rakyat is about to peak in terms of its descend towards a swirling vortex of negativity that will surely see itself unable to be ready to do battle with the Umno-led BN within the time frame left to September.

For Najib, all is in readiness for his joust with destiny.

And the pity of it all is that Pakatan and the components within Pakatan have no one to blame but themselves for the situation they now find themselves in.

What should have been the catalyst for Pakatan’s revival after Anwar was acquitted of Sodomy II became instead its own death knell. The acquittal took from Pakatan Rakyat that baseball bat that they could have used to beat the hell out of Barisan Nasional for sending Anwar to jail on trumped up charges of sodomy – so was the script supposed to pan out? Instead Anwar was acquitted!

Without that baseball bat to beat the hell out of Umno, all Pakatan Rakyat had left to fall back upon is the reservoir of goodwill, which they thought was still with the people of Malaysia for them.

They were wrong again. The people have had enough of the antics of those within PKR who saw the party to be their own. These first-tier leaders within PKR proceeded to diminish whatever credibility the party still had by the manner they abused PKR for their own gains – with no regards to what would befall PKR once we say enough is enough. We have said enough is enough!

PKR now stands abandoned by many and lurches from day to day while its leaders do what they want with a PKR that is really their own in fact and substance.

And that is all that PKR now has – itself. No credibility, no substance and certainly no support from the people. Its coalition partners within Pakatan Rakyat are without the courage to administer the coup de grace that would end PKR’s misery and allow Pakatan Rakyat to move forward.

And if any of you think that Nurul will be PKR’s saviour – what is there left for her to be saviour of? She may even loses her Lembah Pantai seat. Would Anwar have a right to consider himself leader of Pakatan Rakyat if PKR is the weakest link in the opposition?

And if Anwar is no longer leader who then would be? Kit Siang by default? And would we the see the Malays desert Pakatan in droves for Umno when that happens?

I am sure Pakatan leaders had foreseen all these and yet do not have the ability to not allow it to happen because as I have said before, tainted leaders taint the party they lead and corrupt leaders corrupt the party they lead.

Pakatan facing its biggest challenge

And nowhere is this true then of PKR! That Azmin and Anwar are leaders of PKR speak volumes of the maturity, or the lack of it, of those within PKR who have put up with these two leaders leading PKR from being the largest party within the opposition to become its weakest link at a time when Pakatan is facing its biggest challenge since its inception.

Problems also beset PAS as Tok Guru’s spiritual leadership is now being questioned. For DAP its claim to no longer be a party just for the Chinese will be severely tested in its choice for candidates to represent it at the 13th general election.

And Najib calls for election in September. The question left to be asked and answered by Pakatan is what will they do then?

Their answer will probably be they will regroup and be ready to face BN – as ready as General Custer was to meet Chief Sitting Bull. As ready as Hitler and his army was for the Russian Winter…and as ready as the Americans were to do battle in Vietnam.

Let me remind Pakatan that good intentions are never enough in politics. Good intentions will see you being given a hearing by the electorates.

Good intentions will see many of us support ABU and treat Pakatan with kids glove even as Pakatan stumbled time and time again amongst yourselves and yet never learned from their mistakes.

CT Ali is a reformist who believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.