IS AZMIN GOING TO SUFFER KHALID’S FATE?

Muhyiddin can no longer be Mahathir’s tool to oust Najib and protect Mukhriz. But he can still be Anwar’s tool to oust Azmin and protect Wan Azizah. Muhyiddin will have to think about this and give Rafizi his reply after Hari Raya.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Every man and his dog know that Azmin Ali was not supposed to be the Selangor Menteri Besar. Initially it was supposed to be Anwar Ibrahim and then, when they realised that Anwar was going to be sent to jail, it was switched to his wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Azmin, of course, openly expressed his support for Wan Azizah. I mean this is what politicians will always do, express support, even when they do not support you and wish you would die. And then, quietly, behind the scenes, Azmin lobbied for the job, which is also what politicians sometimes do.

He lobbied PAS. He lobbied the Palace. He lobbied his colleagues and cronies in PKR, a.k.a. ‘Team Azmin’.

In the end, Azmin did get the job of Selangor Menteri Besar. But he only got the job because PAS supported him. And when HRH the Sultan of Selangor asked the PAS President, Abdul Hadi Awang, whether they really supported Azmin, Hadi replied ‘yes’.

So Team B in PAS (a.k.a. the so-called ‘liberals’ or ‘progressives’) knew that Hadi was ‘guilty’ of making Azmin the Selangor Menteri Besar. Team A in PKR also knew that. And Team A, Team B and Team C in DAP also knew the same thing — which is, Azmin became the Selangor Menteri Besar because Hadi supported him and that Hadi confirmed this with the Sultan.

And that is why DAP hates Hadi as bad as they hate Umno, Barisan Nasional, PAS, the Pahang Mufti, Hudud, Najib, Rosmah, etc., the same way they used to hate Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar Ibrahim, Muhyiddin Yassin, all Mahathir’s children, and so on.

Anyway, Azmin is Hadi’s and PAS’s choice of Menteri Besar. He is not DAP’s, PAN’s and Team A of PKR’s choice of Menteri Besar. So Azmin must suffer the same fate as his predecessor, Khalid Ibrahim.

Can you remember just a few months before they pancung Khalid, DAP’s Tony Pua proclaimed that Khalid was the best, cleanest, most honest and most hard working Menteri Besar in Selangor history? Then, no sooner had he said that, they proclaimed that Khalid is the most corrupt Menteri Besar in Selangor history and got rid of him.

So now it is Azmin’s turn. And two days ago Rafizi Ramli led a delegation to meet Muhyiddin in Johor to discuss the possibility of him joining PKR. Mahathir can no longer use Muhyiddin as the proxy to replace Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak because of his scandal involving an affair with someone’s wife. So Muhyiddin is now ‘free’ to make other deals.

So PKR is now exploring the possibility of Muhyiddin joining PKR — and then later go for the Deputy President’s job. PKR, in fact, did this once before. They enticed PRM to merge with PKN (and the two merged entities are called PKR) by offering the PRM President the post of Deputy President of the merged party.

So PKR is doing the same thing with Muhyiddin. If he joins PKR they will give him the post of Deputy President of the party (just like they gave Syed Husin Ali the post of the Deputy President of PKR).

In Syed Husin’s case, they told Abdul Rahman Othman, the then Deputy President, to make way for Syed Husin. Now they will tell Azmin to make way for Muhyiddin.

So Azmin will be dropped as PKR’s Deputy President (in favour of Muhyiddin) just like Rahman Othman was dropped as PKR’s Deputy President (in favour of Syed Husin). Rahman, of course, later left PKR to join PAS. Will Azmin also leave PKR to join PAS?

Well, he might do that if his future is at risk and the only way he can remain the Selangor Menteri Besar would be as a PAS member.

Anyway, Azmin will either have to defend his deputy’s post by fighting Muhyiddin or he will have to vacate his deputy’s post and contest the post of party President instead. That means Azmin will have to oust Wan Azizah to become PKR’s President but then he will have Muhyiddin as his number two.

Rafizi and the rest of the political strategists in that photo above feel that if Azmin fights for number two he will lose to Muhyiddin and if he vacates the post of number two to contest the post of number one he will lose to Dr Wan Azizah.

In short, either way Azmin is going to lose — either to Muhyiddin or to Wan Azizah. And that would mean Mahathir’s plan to take over PKR with Azmin as his proxy and new party President will be torpedoed.

Anwar Ibrahim might be in jail but that does not mean he does not have his hands on the pulse. And there is no way Rafizi can lead a delegation of Anwar loyalists to meet Muhyiddin without that third letter from prison (oh, you did not know about that third letter?).

Anyway, Muhyiddin will now have to spend the next week over the Hari Raya holidays thinking about this. Mahathir can no longer use him to oust Najib. However, Anwar can still use him to oust Azmin. So whose tool would Muhyiddin rather be, Mahathir’s or Anwar’s?