Siapa Hitamkan PKR?

PKR: Too much drama, too little governance

Sandra John

 | October 19, 2014

Lies, blackmail and back-stabbing make this political drama one that demands PG rating.

COMMENT

Incredulous plot twists, secrets, scandals, sodomy and deceit. It does look like PKR has all the ratings-boosting elements of a daytime soap opera.

After months of heated debate and frantic finger-pointing, PKR’s deputy president Azmin Ali was finally sworn in as Selangor’s new menteri besar.

With the dust having finally settled, many were hopeful that measures could now be taken to get Selangor back on track.

However in a plot twist no one had anticipated, a source told FMT that several state assemblymen who had previously signed statutory declarations backing Wan Azizah as menteri besar had in reality been coerced into it.

If this information is indeed true, does it not cast doubt on the 30 statutory declarations Wan Azizah said she supposedly had? Was she privy to this coercion? And if she was, doesn’t that mean she lied straight-faced to the media, to the people, even to the Sultan of Selangor himself?

One of the wronged assemblymen was enraged enough to lodge a police report that his signature was forged. The others have remained anonymous, lurking in the background, preferring to let rumours fester as politics in Selangor is once again marred by dark and damning revelations.

Now yet another twist has been weaved into the storyline — a sinister e-mail exchange purportedly showing a conversation between PKR’s de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, secretary-general Rafizi Ramli and youth chief Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.

In the e-mail, Azmin is instructed to sign an undated resignation letter for use in the future should he ever have the audacity to disobey directives from higher up. The e-mail also contains a laundry list of dos and don’ts that Azmin must agree to, failing which his tenure as MB will be unceremoniously cut short with the immediate issuance of the said letter.

Azmin, when met by reporters at the Kampung Raja Uda mosque after this revelation, maintained a dignified demeanour and vehemently denied there was a shred of truth to that preposterous e-mail.

Meanwhile those watching the saga unfold are left in the lurch once again, not knowing what to believe as this drama becomes one that is engaging, frustrating and disappointing at the same time.

Not doing any favours for the party is the verdict of Anwar’s Sodomy II appeal that will be made known by the end of this month.

Should Anwar be found guilty, he faces a prison term. If he is not, there is always the unpleasant possibility that a Sodomy III charge will rear its ugly head soon enough and drag the people along in yet another feeble attempt at Reformasi.

With a new MB now at the helm, it is sad to note that Selangor is still very much in the clutches of an ego-centric leadership that seem all too entrenched in playing a high stakes game of self-serving politics rather than that of humbly serving the people who elected them to office.

The Kidex issue is nowhere near solved. Dengue is still a very real threat. And poor trash collection and traffic congestion are still a part of every day life that Selangorians grit their teeth and put up with, some silently, some with increasing impatience bordering on anger.

Selangor is a goldmine, if we go by the billions the previous MB helped hoard. Is it still too early to demand some decent answers from Azmin as to how he plans to use this monetary reserve to reduce poverty? To settle the water issue? To clean up the streets? And to bring some semblance of respectability back to Selangor?

The internal strife in PKR that constantly makes the headlines does nothing to instil confidence in the people that any two people in PKR can work together, much less with their coalition partners to run Selangor efficiently.

It is well and good to blame every dirty political trick on Barisan Nasional. Yet the MB issue was solely the doing of PKR and its coalition partners DAP and PAS. It started with the ridiculous Kajang Move and ended with PAS taking the rap for betraying its partners and weakening the might of the coalition.

While it is clear as day that the leaders of BN are far from the honest-to-goodness boy scouts we would prefer them to be, it is also time for us to admit that the opposition coalition that we so whole-heartedly believed was our salvation has turned out to be just as ruthless, scheming and self-serving.

While many still believe Pakatan Rakyat is the lesser of two evils, I for one, think it is high time PKR put the drama aside and earn a standing ovation for clean politics and good governance in the state of Selangor.

If it doesn’t, there will be no end to our doubts that this blundering bunch of boys can lead the nation any better should they ever make it to Putrajaya.