PBM crisis a cautionary tale of political betrayal

 

From Sajahan Kamaruddin

Just days before nominations for the 15th general election, Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) has been rocked by a crisis with its president, Larry Sng, suspending key leaders, including former Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin, who had joined PBM as its “president-designate”.

That PBM should implode at this critical time should come as no surprise. This is because the party is founded by opportunists with their own agenda.

Most of the senior leaders there were in one way or another “political frogs”, led by Zuraida, a former PKR vice-president and among the key protagonists of the Sheraton Move. Zuraida had quit PKR with Azmin Ali to join Bersatu and was duly rewarded by being retained as housing and local government minister.

While in Bersatu, she covertly supported the setting up of PBM, with the hope of becoming the country’s first female party president. And for that, she was sacked from Bersatu, but her allegiance to Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob paid off as she was retained as the plantation industries and commodities minister.

Sng himself was a serial party-hopper in Sarawak, his political base. Although he contested and won the Julau seat as an independent during the 2018 general election, he subsequently joined PKR and was even made the state chapter’s chairman, before quitting the party in the aftermath of the Sheraton Move.

The other MPs who stood under the Pakatan Harapan ticket and joined PBM were Dr Xavier Jayakumar (Kuala Langat), Steven Choong (Tebrau), Edmund Santhara Kumar (Segamat), and Mohamaddin Ketapi (Lahad Datu).

There are also several assemblymen from PH who hopped over to PBM, including A Sivasubramaniam (Buntong), Paul Yong (Tronoh), Leong Cheok Keng (Malim Nawar), Haniza Talha (Lembah Jaya) and Daroyah Alwi (Sementa).

If these leaders were willing to betray the mandate of voters who put them in office by switching political allegiance, it would be naive to think that they would not do the same to their fellow lawmakers to satisfy their desire for power.

And now, the likes of Zuraida are being beaten at their own game. If Sng’s claim of still being the PBM president holds, there’s a likelihood that he would not sign the letter to “anoint” Zuraida and her ilk as the party’s candidates for GE15.

This leaves people like Zuraida possibly unable to stand as candidates in the very party whose genesis was linked to her. And she may have to stand as an independent. But whichever way it goes, her fate in the polls is sealed – voters will teach her and her supporters a painful lesson they will never forget. - FMT

Sajahan Kamaruddin is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.