Again, didn’t I say so?

PAS vice-president, Mahfuz Omar, has suggested that Hasan Ali -- who openly indicated his willingness to become the matchmaker for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to unite the Malays and Muslims, plus who said he was prepared to leave PAS (presumably to join Umno) -- leave the party and join Umno if he wants to.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Well, this is what I wrote almost three years ago back on 15th February 2009:

Dr Shad Faruqi gives his opinion on what many now perceive as a Constitutional Crisis in Perak. Call it a constitutional crisis or a political crisis if you want, but Perak is not the only state that is going to fall to Barisan Nasional. Kedah and Selangor may be next on the cards.

Five Pakatan Rakyat State Assemblypersons from Kedah have already met the higher echelons of Umno and have given their undertaking to cross over en bloc once the numbers enable Barisan Nasional to form the new government in Kedah. RM100 million has been allocated to the Kedah exercise and those crossing over are going to be well rewarded.

In Selangor, Hasan Ali has been promised the post of Menteri Besar if he can convince enough of his people to join him in crossing over. This is of course further to the millions he and his gang are going to receive. So far he has only two from PAS and another two or so from PKR who have agreed to join him. So he will need a couple more to finalise the plan.

Rest assured it is all about power and money. Hasan Ali wanted to be the Menteri Besar of Selangor way back in 1999. The only problem is that in 1999 the opposition did not win Selangor. He still wants to be Menteri Besar. And if crossing over to Barisan Nasional with enough of his supporters to enable Barisan Nasional to form the new Selangor government is what it takes, then that is how he will do it as long as he can become Menteri Besar.

Even Hee Yit Fong, the State Assemblywoman who had been with DAP for 20 years, crossed over for money. She has thus far received RM15 million from Vincent Tan of Berjaya fame. She will probably be paid another RM10 million once the dust settles. It seems she needed the money to bail out her husband who was heavily in debt. This was the same situation with Lee Lam Thye who was forced to leave DAP so that he could bail out his wife from her gambling debts. Barisan Nasional, of course, helped settle all his wife’s debts once he ‘abandoned his cause’ and turned pro-establishment.

When we told Pakatan Rakyat that Perak was going to fall, they replied they have things under control. Now we are telling them that Kedah and Selangor too are in a precarious situation and they had better do something about it. Please don’t tell us you have everything under control and then, a few weeks down the road, we see these two states go the way of Perak.

Anyway, while Pakatan Rakyat figures out how to defend Kedah and Selangor from the RM200 million onslaught by Barisan Nasional, read Dr Shad Faruqi’s take on the Perak crisis.

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And I wrote the following article on 23rd September 2009:

Many ask me why I refuse to go into active politics. I try to tell to these people that I am not a politician but a political activist. Most do not appear to understand the difference. I try to explain it as simply as I can. A politician seeks power. A political activist seeks change. I seek change, not power. So I am a political activist, not a politician.

That may not be the most accurate way to explain it but I think this would probably clear the air as to why I wish to be one and not the other. The analogy I normally use is the comparison between Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Castro wanted power. Che just wanted change. And when they toppled the Cuban government and formed the new government, Castro went on to become its new leader while, after only six years in government, Che went off to start a new revolution in another country -- and died, of course.

Make no bones about it. Most people who are in politics are in it because of their lust for power -- be it the ruling party or the opposition. They are not in politics for the sake of change or to serve the people. Most times, serving the people is the last thing on their minds. It’s all about their lust for power and the pursuit of power. And that is why it is very difficult to comprehend the actions of politicians, even those in the opposition.

Take the Selangor issue as an example. Way back in 1999 there was already a power struggle between the two Alis -- Hasan Ali and Azmin Ali of PAS and PKR respectively. Both thought that their party was going to win the most number of seats in Selangor so both wanted to become Selangor’s new Menteri Besar. In the end, the opposition did not win, of course, so this ‘settled’ the dispute.

That was ten years ago. But when the opposition did eventually win Selangor in March last year, the power struggle resurfaced. PKR won the most number of seats while DAP came in second. PAS was at the bottom of the list of number of seats.

This means the new Menteri Besar has to come from PKR, not PAS. So the question of whether Hasan Ali should become the Menteri Besar is not even open for discussion. There was no way he could become the Menteri Besar. The Menteri Besar has to come from PKR.

But if Anwar appoints Azmin Ali as Menteri Besar this would antagonise Hasan Ali. In fact, Hasan Ali was already engaged in secret negotiations with Umno to explore the possibility of Umno and PAS forming the new state government with Hasan Ali as the new Menteri Besar. It was not about whether Umno, instead of PKR-DAP, is a better partner for PAS Selangor. It is about which equation would benefit Hasan Ali. With PKR-DAP, Hasan Ali would not be able to become Menteri Besar. With Umno, he could.

But a PAS-Umno alliance would not offer them enough seats to form the government. They would need more seats than that and only if there were some crossovers from PKR would they have enough seats. So it can’t be done with just PAS and Umno. It has to be PAS and Umno plus some from PKR as well. However, since they could not get any PKR state assemblypersons to crossover, the plan was a non-starter.

DAP thought it could get the most number of seats in Selangor. A problem would then arise that since DAP did not have any Malay assemblypersons then how are they going to take the Menteri Besar’s post? This, in fact, happened in Perak. Although DAP won the most number of seats in Perak they had to offer the post of Menteri Besar to the party that won the least number of seats, PAS -- which was actually not a bad choice on reflection considering that Nizar Jamaluddin is an ideal candidate.

DAP could accept the fact that PKR won the most number of seats in Selangor so the Menteri Besar has to come from that party. But DAP won the second highest number of seats so at least they could hold the post of Deputy Menteri Besar. After all, the opposition won Selangor because of the non-Malay votes and not because of the Malay votes. The Malays were split 50-50. It was the non-Malay votes that saw the opposition victorious.

But this posed two problems. First was the fact that Selangor was won with the support of the non-Malays and not the Malays, who were split 50:50. This, no one can deny. But this also means that the Malay support is very dicey. Umno is already saying that the Chinese now control Penang, Perak and Selangor. If a Chinese Deputy Menteri Besar were to be appointed in Selangor, then the opposition would play right into Umno’s hands. The opposition would actually be helping Umno ‘prove’ that Selangor is now under the control of the Chinese and that Umno’s rhetoric is an undeniable fact and no lie.

It is not about the opposition not wanting a Chinese as the Deputy CEO in Selangor. It is about being very careful and not giving Umno the ammunition it needs to exploit the sentiments of the Malays in the race game that Umno is playing. Umno is screaming that the 8th March 2008 General Election is a repeat of the 11th May 1969 General Election. Therefore, said Umno, they need a 13th May 1969 ‘solution’ to the problem. Remember Hitler’s ‘final solution’?

It was very crucial that the opposition does not allow Umno to use the argument that Selangor has been ‘lost’ to the Chinese. They are already saying that about Penang and Perak -- being lost to the Chinese. And Selangor is the jewel in the crown of the three states that control more than half the economy of Malaysia.

The second problem is within DAP itself. DAP Selangor is split into various factions, each at odds with the other. So, who from DAP should become the Deputy Menteri Besar if the opposition dared throw caution to the wind and appoints a Chinese from DAP to become the Deputy Menteri Besar? Some aspirants from DAP were even organising protests and demonstrations to pre-empt the ‘other side’ from getting appointed as the Deputy Menteri Besar. DAP Selangor would break up and some might even leave the party and declare themselves ‘independent’ candidates just like our DAP lady from Perak.

If nobody from DAP gets the post of Deputy Menteri Besar then everyone would be happy. Never mind if I don’t get it as long as no one else gets it. But if you appoint someone from one faction, the other faction would revolt.

And that is the same reason why Anwar decided that Khalid Ibrahim should become the Menteri Besar. Khalid is not the best choice of candidate. Some even go so far as to say he is the worst choice. Azmin Ali, they argue, would be a better choice. I think so too. But if Azmin Ali were to be appointed as the Menteri Besar then Hasan Ali will merajuk (sulk) and would seriously consider the Umno proposal to form a PAS-Umno government in Selangor.

Hasan Ali is not realistic enough. No doubt Umno is courting him. However, they are courting him not because he is a fantastic guy but because they know he lusts for the post of Menteri Besar. So they dangle this sweet carrot in front of his face and watch his mouth drool. Once Umno grabs Selangor they will then move into phase 2 of the plan. And phase 2 is how to get rid of Hasan Ali.

Actually, it is not that difficult to kill off Hasan Ali once he goes to bed with Umno. Umno knows that the Sultan of Selangor does not like Hasan Ali. And I got this confirmed by my palace sources. So, all they need to do is to announce that PAS and Umno are now going to form the new Selangor government and then request an audience with the Sultan. Since Umno and PAS -- with some ‘independents’ from PKR/DAP they hope -- now control the most number of seats in Selangor, the Sultan will have no choice but to swear in the new government.

However, while the Sultan has no choice but to agree to a new PAS-Umno government, he does not have to agree that Hasan Ali becomes the new Menteri Besar. And, in fact, he will not agree. So Umno can then just shrug their shoulders and say that we agree you become the Menteri Besar but the Sultan does not. So, sorry mate, you can’t become the Menteri Besar after all. It has to be someone from Umno.

Hasan Ali can be shot down even while he is still taxiing on the runaway and before he can take off. Remember Pearl Harbour and what the Japanese did to the Americans? Hasan Ali will meet his Pearl Harbour at the hands of Umno and with the help of the Sultan.

It is therefore not difficult to understand why there is so much chaos in Pakatan Rakyat Selangor. Not only are PKR, DAP and PAS trying to outmanoeuvre each other. Internally, within PKR, DAP and PAS, there are many factions and each is trying to kill off the other.

We have inter-party and we have intra-party wars going on. And it is all because no one is interested in bringing changes or to serve the rakyat. They are only interested in seeking power because politicians naturally lust for power.

So we, the people, need to keep them in check. If power goes to their heads they will very quickly forget that it was the people who put them there. They will forget that they are supposed to work for the rakyat. They will become just like Barisan Nasional in thinking that the rakyat are the slaves while they are the masters.

Never trust politicians. They will use us when it best suits them. Then they will turn on us and betray the trust we gave them. And that is why the need for some of us to remain as political activists and not become politicians. This is so that we can whack the politicians when they forget themselves, which will be as soon as they win the election and form the new government.