Kajang By-Election

Sin Chew Jit Poh

28 February 2014

 

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There is so much speculation about what is really happening in Kajang. Malaysian love to speculate; especially in political matters.

 

Of course Keadilan have come out with reasons why they have forced this by election. Their main argument is that although Khalid is a good Menteri Besar and that he has run a clean and efficient state government he does not have the political savvy to deal with sensitive issues such as the Allah fiasco.

 

Critics point out that if he is so un-savvy, why select him as Menteri Besar after the last General Election? To be fair to Keadilan, a lot of these politically sensitive issues only reared its ugly head after the elections, so there could be credence to the argument that Khalid suddenly found himself in choppy waters that he did not expect.

 

Then there is the theory that all this is done in order to settle the feud between Khalid and Azmin Ali. Somehow with Anwar in charge then the internal bickering would magically be kept in check. I have no idea whether this is true or not and besides I find thinking about Keadilan’s internal squabbles makes me want to take a long hot shower. It makes me feel dirty.

 

And there is the crux of the matter: Anwar wants to be in charge of Selangor. The party and the man himself have been very coy about this. Deflecting questions about whether he is aiming for the Menteri Besar post by telling us that it is early days and that he has to win Kajang first. But any man and his dog can tell you that that is the end game here.

 

With Anwar in charge then he can prove that he can run Selangor well and that the smooth governance of the state then becomes a mirror of his ability to run the whole country from Putrajaya. So in effect it is like an audition for his Prime Minister-ship.

 

It is early days of course, and the by election is far away. Furthermore who knows what could happen. The BN candidate could win or maybe Zaid Ibrahim will rise like a phoenix from the ashes and surprise everybody. And even if Anwar does win the by election, Khalid needs to step down, the state legislative assembly will have to be fully behind Anwar as the new Menteri Besar and the Sultan would then have to do his constitutional duty and select the person with the confidence of the house as the new leader of the state executive.

 

So much can still happen, but at the end of the day, my feeling is that if Anwar gets what he wishes for, which is the post of Selangor Menteri Besar, then he has taken a very huge gamble. He really must prove himeself by doing an outstanding job. Although I do not see anything illegal in what has happened, you have to admit that all this political manoeuvrings and shenanigans does leave a sour taste in the mouth.

 

Because of that the ends must justify the means. Anwar must be able to prove that his leadership qualities are outstanding so that sour taste can be washed out. And seeing as how it is an audition for the biggest job in the country, he really can’t afford to mess up. The trouble is there will be plenty waiting around to try to make him do just that.