GAME NOT OVER FOR ANWAR BUT FOR HADI, THE END IS NIGH

Not only did Hadi spectacularly lost his own state of Terengganu, he also caused his party to lose Kedah. Add these to the fact that he almost single-handedly brought down the Pakatan goverment in Selangor.

Tan Jooi Long, The Ant Daily

As surely as the sun rose in the East, the Federal Court upheld the guilty verdict on Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

But just as surely as Anwar is down, at least for now, the de facto leader of PKR and Pakatan Rakyat is far from out.

It will be a different story, however, for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.

Najib’s saga will be told another day. Today, I will focus on the irrepressible Hadi.

To begin with, it is not for nothing that the leaders of Anwar’s ‘fan club’ in PAS are known as Erdogans, so-named after Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has led his party to three general election victories.

When he first led the AKP to its sweeping victory in 2002, Erdogan was still serving a ban on holding political office after being sentenced to prison for 10 months.

His number two in the party became prime minister, and Erdogan only took over the helm one year later after the new government annulled his political ban.

So it’s not all doom and gloom even as Anwar is incarcerated.

Even as the opposition leader is now disqualified from holding political office, the constitutional ban will be nothing more than an irritable technicality when Pakatan wrests power.

True to form, the mounting chorus of analysts and observers are already in agreement that sending Anwar to prison (again) for sodomy (again) will play into the hands of the PKR-PAS-DAP pact at the general election due by 2018.

Anwar himself had said over the weekend, “If I go to jail again, we win over 60% (votes).”

There will be light at the end of the tunnel for Anwar, PKR and Pakatan.

But the opposition pact must first fight tooth and nail to win the forthcoming parliamentary elections, the mother of all gerrymandering notwithstanding.

When that happens, the ‘number two’ to warm the prime minister’s seat for Anwar will not be Hadi.

Anwar, PKR, DAP and even the Erdogans in PAS do not trust the Islamist party’s president.

Not only did Hadi spectacularly lost his own state of Terengganu, he also caused his party to lose Kedah. Add these to the fact that he almost single-handedly brought down the Pakatan goverment in Selangor.

It is by clever design that central committee member Dr Hatta Ramli is the chosen Erdogan to challenge Hadi.

Hatta is Kelantanese, which makes him least controversial to bring down Hadi.

Hatta is also an intellectual professional and, most of all, an MP.

As MP for Kuala Krai, he is eligible to be prime minister, a fact not lost on Hadi's noisy supporters who are already gunning for him.

Certainly, Hatta is not the most senior Erdogan. But his 'qualification' places him in pole position among the moderate, progressive 'Anwaristas' in PAS.

PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu and vice-president Datuk Husam Musa both lost in the last parliamentary polls.

Fellow central committee members Khalid Samad, Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa and Hanipa Maidin are sitting MPs just like Hatta, but the Kelantanese has a special advantage over them: he was once political secretary to Hadi.

Anwar may be in behind bars, but Hadi is facing a clear and present danger.

When PAS finally 'retires' Hadi, the new battle lines between the Umno-led Barisan Nasional and the Anwar-led Pakatan Rakyat will be more clearly drawn.