HOW DAP IS GOING TO KILL AZMIN

So DAP is far smarter than most of you give them credit for. What they want is to kill Azmin. But they cannot admit this. So instead they raise the issue of Hudud and blame Hadi for the breakup of Pakatan Rakyat — and what happens instead is Azmin is kicked out and replaced with Wan Azizah.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Over the last few days of this week DAP has been repeating again and again that PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang killed Pakatan Rakyat. Maybe it is true that DAP was the one that announced Pakatan Rakyat is dead while PAS and PKR insist it is not, however, it is Hadi who killed Pakatan Rakyat.

Make sense?

DAP’s beef with Hadi is actually because he did not support the Kajang Move and the ouster of Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim. Hadi then did not support the move to replace Khalid with Anwar Ibrahim’s wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

DAP and PKR wanted Wan Azizah as Khalid’s replacement but Hadi backed Azmin Ali instead. While DAP and PKR submitted just one name to replace Khalid as Menteri Besar, Hadi proposed two names, Azmin and Wan Azizah.

Actually HRH the Sultan of Selangor had a third name in mind, Iskandar Samad. If Hadi had proposed three names like what HRH wanted — Iskandar, Azmin and Wan Azizah — today Selangor would have a PAS Menteri Besar. But Hadi would not do that. He proposed just two names, both from PKR and none from PAS, so Azmin was appointed the Menteri Besar.

Of course PAS, DAP and PKR all know this. And many wonder why Hadi did not also propose that third name that HRH wanted, Iskandar. If he had then Iskandar and not Azmin would be the Menteri Besar.

The answer is simple. Although PAS could have ‘stolen’ the post of Selangor Menteri Besar from PKR, Hadi did not want to do that.

If you can remember, around Hari Raya last year, Hadi had a private audience with the Sultan and this set tongues wagging. Wan Azizah wrote the Sultan a letter requesting an audience but HRH turned down that request. On the other hand, HRH summoned Hadi to the palace for a private meeting.

Basically this private meeting was to discuss PAS taking over the post of Selangor Menteri Besar. The post was practically in the hands of PAS but Hadi did not take it and offered it to Azmin instead.

This is one fact that is never discussed. Instead they discuss how Hadi betrayed Pakatan Rakyat. If Hadi really wanted to betray Pakatan Rakyat he could have done so by including the name of Iskandar Samad as the third name in his letter to the Sultan. But Hadi did not. He gave just two names, both from PKR.

The Hudud issue was a 1993 issue. The Kelantan State Assembly had passed that amendment to the state Shariah law back in 1993 around 15 years before Pakatan Rakyat was formed in 2008.

When Pakatan Rakyat was formed in 2008, the Kelantan State Government did not withdraw that Bill. It still remained in the books. Hence DAP and PKR entered into a coalition with PAS in 2008 knowing that Hudud was still in the books in both Kelantan and Terengganu and that if PAS had won Terengganu either in 2008 or 2013 Hudud would still have remained in the books.

PAS never withdrew the Kelantan Shariah amendment Bill since Pakatan Rakyat was formed seven years ago in 2008 and would not have done so if they had won Terengganu in 2008 or 2013 as well.

The agreement in the formation of Pakatan Rakyat in 2008 did not include PAS withdrawing the Shariah Amendment Bill in Kelantan or in Terengganu if PAS manages to win back that state. Hence Hudud stays approved in both Kelantan and Terengganu.

What the Kelantan State Government (I repeat, the Kelantan State Government and NOT the PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang) is now doing is to propose an amendment to that 1993 amendment. Yes, an amendment to the Shariah Bill already amended in 1993 and approved by the Kelantan State Assembly.

Hadi is not in the Kelantan State Assembly or the Menteri Besar of Kelantan and those who know the PAS structure will also know that PAS Kelantan has a mind of its own. In fact, PAS in Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Kelantan, Terengganu, Johor, Selangor, etc., are more or less autonomous. They decide what they want to do.

Do you not remember what PAS Kedah did, against the wishes of PAS Pusat, which resulted in the state falling back to Barisan Nasional? Are not DAP in Sabah and Sarawak also autonomous? Do you blame Lim Kit Siang for what DAP in Sabah or Sarawak do even if what they do is opposite to DAP Pusat policy or decision?

Anyway, the Hudud issue is merely a smokescreen. The real issue is Azmin Ali. DAP wants to oust Azmin because he refuses to kowtow to DAP or the Wan Azizah faction in PKR.

But they cannot get rid of Azmin the way they did Khalid. How can they accuse Azmin of all sorts of things like they did Khalid because it would look too obvious? So they ‘kill’ Pakatan Rakyat in the hope that it would trigger a crisis in Selangor.

In Kelantan there would be no change since PAS controls that state with a clear majority. In Penang, DAP and PKR control 29 of the 40 seats so that state is also safe.

In Selangor, however, PKR controls just 13 of the 56 seats. So this places PKR in the minority unlike PAS in Kelantan or DAP-PKR in Penang. Hence without DAP’s 15 seats and the two crossovers from PAS, Azmin would have to step down.

DAP’s 15 and the two crossovers from PAS added to the 13 from PKR would give them 30. And Azmin needs 29 so that gives him a one-seat majority. But to get the 15 DAP seats and the two PAS crossovers, Azmin would have to consider stepping down and handing power to Wan Azizah.

Azmin will be meeting HRH the Sultan to explain this. If HRH does not agree to Azmin stepping down in favour of Wan Azizah that is going to create the second Menteri Besar crisis in Selangor just one year after the first.

Azmin cannot rule with just 13 seats. He needs another 16 seats at least. Of course Azmin can always talk to PAS but he will not get 15. Maybe at best he can get 12 or 13. So he will still be short of four or five. If Khalid Ibrahim throws in his support Azmin still needs a few more seats. And that means he will need to talk to Umno.

The problem is if he talks to Umno then he would not get 13 from PKR but maybe just six or seven. And that would mean he would still be short even with Umno’s support.

So Azmin now has his balls in a vice. Who does he go with? If he wants PKR’s and DAP’s support he needs to consider retiring. If he wants to stay as Menteri Besar then he needs to look to PAS and Umno for his 29 seats.

And that is how they are going to kill Azmin, just one year into his job.

Perkasa Selangor just came out with a statement today warning Pakatan Rakyat to not drag the Sultan into this crisis. This is because Perkasa knows that in the end Azmin will need the Sultan’s help for him to keep his job. Hence the Palace is going to be dragged into this crisis, as Perkasa said.

So DAP is far smarter than most of you give them credit for. What they want is to kill Azmin. But they cannot admit this. So instead they raise the issue of Hudud and blame Hadi for the breakup of Pakatan Rakyat — and what happens instead is Azmin is kicked out and replaced with Wan Azizah.

Lim Kit Siang is almost as clever as Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. His strategy is to shoot Hadi but kill Azmin. Phew…what a move. I like that.