Clarity of Pakatan Rakyat Break-up with PAS

After a month of arduous representation to the Sultan of Selangor and his royal “anger” at PKR and DAP regarding their “disobedience” to his decree to have at least 2 names nominated, while PAS at their Central Committee level agree to nominate Wan Azizah and Azmin finally ended up with Hadi Awang nominating 3 candidates totally different from the PAS CC, including one PAS candidate.

PAS is having their Muktamar and all eyes are on them, including the Sultan. According to news reporting his royal decision on the new MB, it stated that HRH is waiting for the PAS meeting to conclude before deciding on the new MB but the installation date is set for next Tuesday. Presumably, invitations have already gone out but is kept private for now.

Constitution lawyers are surprised by the secrecy shrouding the appointment of the new MB by the Sultan, if the constitution is actually being followed. That is the only basis of the appointment, if the ADUN has the majority support of the house. If that is breached, it will plunge the state into chaos.

Make or Break for Pakatan in Selangor

MB Khalid has been hauled up to appear before the PKR disciplinary committee and it does not look like he will oblige. Sunday will be a date to reckon for Pakatan Rakyat as PKR and DAP and possibly PAS will meet within their leadership committees. The PAS syura already decided to back a decision to retain Khalid as MB. Will the PAS leadership concur?

Obviously, this episode is particularly interesting to all Malaysians, not just Selangorians. How Pakatan Rakyat as a coalition resolves this thorny issue will have significant impact on the future of Malaysia politics. How will PAS unravel itself without creating a split amongst its ranks? How will Anwar fix this while his Sodomy 2 appeal is rushed for hearing? This is a case for political magic by Anwar and the Pakatan Rakyat leadership. Will they stay for common goals or will they split for individual expedience?

MB Khalid argues that he cannot be questioned for his actions as MB for various executive decisions for things like Kidex, the water restructuring, etc. Apparently, MB Khalid forgot that he is not in private management any longer. He is appointed by PKR and supported by PAS and DAP. A political appointment. So he needs to answer to PKR and also the Selangor voters. So far, he has not attempted to do either.

His loan restructuring has become a very suspicious arrangement with Umno. A too good to be true deal always turns heads and theories.

Early Observations of GE13 Results

The votes are finalized and announced by SPR. BN wins 133 over PR 89 seats in Parliament. BN governs all states except Penang, Kelantan and Selangor. PR gains 7 additional seats. All this with strong underlying presence of alleged fraud with phantom voters and unfair main stream media coverage.

Najib’s initial reaction is that he did not expect the Chinese votes to swing so extreme (read here). His line of reasoning was covered with racial overtones with blames on the Chinese community and voting along racial lines.

This off-the-cuff reaction speaks very loudly that Najib’s line of thinking is very racial indeed. In psychological evaluation, one is tested on quick first thing in the mind reaction which shows how Najib thinks. He forgets that there are Malays who voted PR and the popular vote for PR was higher than BN. Why must everything be racial? Because that is how BN thinks and works.

In the calling for national reconciliation, will Najib remains focused on racial lines or will he take the nation beyond race to needs? Unfortunately, not many believes he will change much. It will be flowery rhetorics with racial policies underlying national strategies. But we shall give him a chance and see.

What actually happened in GE13?

What can we expect AFTER GE13?

With the GE13 date set for May 5, we will see the culmination of Malaysia’s longest campaign period in our history. Although the formal campaign period is 15 days from Nomination Day, the unofficial campaigning started since PM Najib took over the reins from Pak Lah. For the past 4 years, Malaysians have gotten all kinds of goodies shoved at them with little economic fundamental progress. Whether they be budgets, programs, policies or expenditures, they are all short term designed to create the impression of strategy but with the intent to make the people feel good about Najib.

Well, the time will soon come for the day of reckoning if all that is said by BN and PR are well understood by Malaysians to translate into real votes for either of these political alignments.

Every political party is on the campaign road knowing full well nobody will stop them anymore regardless of the fact that the official campaigning period is not yet here. Everyday on TV, we will see how Najib pronounce the fact that BN is the savior of Malaysia and everybody else is rubbish.

Then, again, no Govt linked media will ever say anything bad about the ruling parties so that Malaysians will believe anything the media says and BN can do no wrong and there is everything wrong with the Opposition.

Thanks to the Internet and the alternate media, Malaysians can now assess for themselves both sides of the story. It appears that the Opposition has made significant inroads to the Internet savvy voters but those who are not so savvy may be missed out. More work to be done, obviously.

Fast forward to after GE13 and *&^%#$ has won the elections and now the Federal Govt.

We have two very distinct eventualities to consider. Many people are unaware that both BN and PR offers Malaysians two different destinies. Their manifestos may be incomplete but their general sense of direction are diverging. Furthermore, there are many intentions of both BN and PR that are not mentioned in their manifestos.

BN Destiny

A Total Disaster in Perak – Reflective of Future Malaysia?

Each day we read of the political tussle in Perak with more disdain and disbelief.  The silver state has been plunged into a constitutional crisis that may be reflective of the possibility of future Malaysia.  What is happening in Perak, if not checked and constitutionally restored with full democracy, will show what the federal Parliament can eventually become.

Tengku Razaleigh a.k.a. Kuli has become the lone Umno voice that reflects the sentiments of all Malaysians.  His views depart from the Umno stance in stark contrast to the current Umno leaders.  His belief that the Perak crisis must be stopped is not shared by Umno.  His urge to respect the law and constitution and return to the people to obtain a fresh mandate did not go well with Umno (read here).

We now have moved from a frog jumping power takeover by BN to the use of Police and the court to interfere with the state parliament.  The separation of Judiciary, Executive and Legislative has been replaced by the power of the Police and lightning speed court injunction against the Speaker.  The state secretarial clerk now wields more power than the Speaker himself.  The Police listens to the clerk and act against the Speaker.

The misguided interpretation of the Perak Constitution leading to a sitting under the tree with an FRU blockage of the state secretariat building preventing the MPs from entering all shows the circus is in town.

In the haste of obtaining an injunction against the Speaker, BN forgot to check if Ridwan‘s tenure was still valid.  The judicial commissioner’s 2-year term ended last Saturday, 28 February 2009.  This will make any of his declarations and granting of injunction to the BN yesterday (3 March 2009) null and void (read here).  Some believe that he has acted in contempt of the Parliament (read here).

The Day After

As the dust settles, there’s a lot of soul searching and possibly blaming that is going on amongst the BN and Umno leadership.  At the same time, PAS and other Pakatan Rakyat parties are on a celebratory mood going into a summit.  Not forgetting the bloggers and other non-political personalities.

We shall be reading a lot of commentaries from various political analysts both at home and abroad and we can be sure they are all in general consensus of why this has happened.

It doesn’t take an expert to tell what really happened.  The signal was clear from last year’s General Election as well as the Pematang Pauh by-election.  But what did the ruling front do about this?  Blame Pak Lah and force him out of office.  Now with this loss, who else is to be blamed.  Tun M still insists the blame to be on Pak Lah.

What ifs in October

What if this happens or that happens?  There are a myriad of speculations in the month of hot October.  So let’s do some What-if analysis on possibilities, albeit hypothetical.  Beats reading the newspapers.

What if Badawi goes for the Umno Presidential election?