SELANGOR has an ongoing political crisis that is unnecessarily putting the wellbeing of the people at risk. Stranger than fiction, is the internal problems of PKR. In charge in Selangor only on sufferance by its coalition partners, Pas and DAP, who both have more seats than PKR in the state assembly. This fact has not had a humbling effect. Rather, it has been turned into unadulterated opportunism. Now, the aim is to use the office of the menteri besar (MB) to promote the personal agenda of the party’s nepotistic, delusional leadership of a husband and wife pair, who, together view the husband as God’s gift to lead, if not the country, at least Selangor.
It all began with the unforgivable manoeuvre of the recent Kajang by-election, when the sitting assemblyman stepped down to make way for the party’s de facto leader. This itself speaks of the disrespect that PKR has for democracy. Already a parliamentary opposition leader, it was obvious what Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s intention was. He wants to be the Selangor MB. When, however, that was thwarted by the court’s decision, which overturned his acquittal for sodomy, his wife, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, stepped in. This husband and wife couple is a tag team. Anwar was imprisoned for abuse of power. While he was in prison, she stood for and won his constituency of Permatang Pauh, which she held as a vigil. When he was released, she stepped down for him. At that point, she was the parliamentary opposition leader. Upon regaining the seat he held before his conviction, he took the parliamentary office she held. It follows, therefore, that PKR is trying to impose her on the people of Selangor, that the pair is up to their old tricks and she is still holding vigil for him. But is she competent to take over from the incumbent or will she be at the behest of her puppet master?
By training, an ophthalmologist, she has never held an administrative political office. Her experience as a doctor of sorts has not presented her with the necessary skills. Her leadership of PKR is courtesy of her having set up the party as a torch-bearer for Anwar while he was in prison. Set up to maintain his innocence despite having been found guilty of a criminal liability, claiming, instead, political persecution by the then prime minister as his defence, it speaks little of her capability to be an MB. On the other hand, the incumbent is into his second term and has proven capable as an administrator, a fact cited by Pas, which appear to support him. With regards to Selangor’s phenomenal water shortage, he has demonstrated grace when putting the people’s welfare before politics. He decided to work with Putrajaya to solve the problem. In short, Selangor citizens are being forced to accept a doomed strategy, all for some very personal scheme.