Ex-PKR leader: Wan Azizah may be next DCM

If Penang Deputy Chief Minister I Mansor Othman fails to be fielded in a state seat come the 13th general election, his post may be filled by PKR chief Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, said a former party leader.

Former state legal and social service bureau chief Lim Boo Chang, who quit the party in a huff last year, said he is not surprised that Mansor is being moved to the Nibong Tebal parliamentary constituency to leave Penanti vacant so that Wan Azizah can contest in the state seat.

Lim (right) said if PKR can cause a delay and not have Mansor’s position replaced until after the polls, Wan Azizah, the spouse of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, can assume the post instead of an “ambitious person”.

 “Watch my words that this can happen, for Wan Azizah would be a better person to ‘control’ Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng,” Lim toldMalaysiakini.

“I learnt from many PKR grassroots members that they think that Mansor is too soft, often giving in to Guan Eng,” added the former Bukit Gelugor PKR division chief.

“This is their view not mine, and that is the logic that they are working on to replace Mansor with someone else,  who is party president, who can control the secretary-general of another party,” he stressed.

“At least she is more senior, and she was once a woman opposition leader in Parliament, before her husband contested the Permatang Pauh seat and won it in August 2008”.

Lim, who was formerly Gerakan’s Datuk Keramat assemblyperson, was referring to Anwar’sannouncement on Thursday night that the Penang PKR chief would be the candidate for Nibong Tebal.

At a packed ceramah in Sungai Udang, Anwar explained that Mansor (right) would be assisting Pakatan Rakyat in Putrajaya if the coalition manages to win the federal government in the elections, which are slated by the latest in June next year.

There is also the possibility that Mansor, a former academician, may be retained in his DCM post if he eventually contests a state seat and wins, although sources say this is most unlikely.

‘Who is the ambitious person?’

But who is this “ambitious person” who wants to unseat Mansor and assume the DCM I post, Lim was asked.

Lim said he was the same man who brought down former DCM I Fairus Khairuddin, who quit PKR after a disagreement with Guan Eng.

“This ambitious man also advised me to retire from politics before party elections for the Bukit Gelugor division chief’s post,” Lim said.

“He told me don’t fight for that post. If I were you, I would retire from politics. People in the party know who he is,” he added.

Lim said Mansor is a “victim of circumstances” of a tense power struggle in PKR, while the person who is triying to replace him is very much favoured by Guan Eng.

He added that there was a danger for the DCM I to be changed before the GE, but this depended on how much PKR could resist the move.

Mansor, he added, was in a very “risky position” and faces pressure from within and outside the party.

On whether this ambitious person is qualified to be DCM, Lim declined to comment beyond saying he does not serve his constituents well.

“The pressure I see is on Mansor, whether to retire before the elections. To be moved to become a candidate for Nibong Tebal seems like a natural process. However, if given the choice, Mansor would not choose to go there voluntarily.”