In a political rally in Mukah last night to introduce Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s candidate for N51 Balingian’s by-election, Mat Sabu, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia’s (PAS) deputy president slipped a statement that would make a lot of voters reconsider the validity of the so-called “Kajang Move” that has unnecessarily thrown the Kajang constituency into a state of disarray – that said move IS done so that Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) de-facto leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim can become the new Chief Minister of Selangor.
In the middle of his heated speech outside a shop lot in Mukah, he casually insinuated that the reason why the Malaysian Court of Appeals reached a verdict in deliberating Anwar’s sodomy case in record time was to ensure that he would not be able to be named as PR’s candidate for the Kajang by-election. And then, things got really interesting.
“Kalau bicara bulan 4 nanti, kemungkinan Anwar sudah jadi Menteri Besar Selangor. Maka dia sukar lah nak meng-jail-kan seorang Menteri Besar. …kalau tiada undi tak percaya di Dewan Undangan Negeri Selangor, Anwar akan didapati bersalah, terpaksa masuk jail sebagai Menteri Besar.”
(If the trial is done in April, there is a chance that Anwar will already become Menteri Besar of Selangor. Thus, it will be difficult to put him in jail as a Menteri Besar. …If there is no vote of no-confidence in Dewan Undangan Negeri Selangor, Anwar will be found guilty, and will be forced to enter jail as a Menteri Besar.)
“Maka ia akan menggoncang arasy’ Malaysia dan diperhatikan oleh dunia. Oleh itu kita lihat Jabatan Kehakiman diarahkan buat keputusan segera.”
(This will shake Malaysia to its core and we will be watched all over the world. That is why we see Jabatan Kehakiman was ordered to reach a verdict quickly.)
His statements come across not only as a rancid insult to the Malaysian judiciary and our judicial process, but also a slap to the face to the Pakatan Rakyat constituency in Kajang, which has seen their incumbent assemblyman Lee Chin Cheh resign on the 27th January. PKR strategist Rafizi Ramli engineered the move and try to give it a catchy name in order to allow Anwar to become part of Selangor’s Dewan Rakyat, but has never made the party’s true intentions crystal clear.
Anwar, and PKR’s top politicians have tried very hard to deny the rumour that he will be made Menteri Besar before this, as to not allow the people to know just how horrible the infighting within the party leadership actually is. With the state government tangled in various issues, they cannot afford to even bicker on political matters and instead focus on the holistic development of the state, as they have mentioned so often before. However, the reality is that they are struggling to keep hold of Selangor, and their gamble in Kajang is starting to leave them empty-handed.
With Anwar’s conviction in the Court of Appeal in his sodomy case, him being replaced by his wife Wan Azizah as the PKR candidate in Kajang, two of their seats in Pulau Pinang left hung to dry and recent news reports saying that the by-election, at RM1.6 million will be the costliest by-election yet, not even Rafizi’s pre-emptive apology on an editorial he wrote online can even begin to mask the damage PKR have done. As such, it is plain for everyone to see that Kajang has been reduced into both a sacrificial lamb and a lab rat at the same time.
If Mat Sabu is telling the truth, then Anwar, Rafizi and PKR have been lying through their teeth in justifying using Kajang as a chessboard. If Mat Sabu is lying, then he will need to answer to his audience in Mukah. Either way, the writer reckons that Pakatan has a co-ordination problem and this will prove vital in their standing in the two by-elections. - tunku
