We want action, not rhetoric
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Unless Anwar corrects the biggest mistake of all, handing Selangor to someone not capable of doing the job, there is no way we are going to forgive him and the voters will demonstrate their displeasure come the next election when they give Selangor back to Barisan Nasional.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Former colleague makes police report on Azmin Ali
A former secretary to Anwar Ibrahim today lodged a police report on the purchase of shares amounting to RM2 million by PKR vice-president Azmin Ali and his wife.Anuar Shaari, 40, made the report at the Commercial Crime Investigation Department at Bukit Aman.
Anuar, who served Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for two years from 1996, was accompanied by several members of the Permuafakatan Ummah (Pewaris) and Badan Amal Tarbiah Sejagat (Batas).
“I handed a copy of the original document on the ownership of the shares … to find out the truth because based on the document that I have, it looks like the original, but I’m not an expert to prove it,” he told reporters.
“I’m linking Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim because the document was dated 1992-1994 when Anwar was the Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, and Azmin Ali was also Anwar’s secretary then,” he said. — Bernama
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The talk in town is no longer, if Barisan Nasional dissolves the Perak State Assembly, whether Pakatan Rakyat can win enough seats to form the state government. It is, if Pakatan Rakyat dissolves the Selangor State Assembly, whether it can win enough seats to, again, form the state government.
Perak is not really that big an issue because, in the first place, Pakatan Rakyat won a marginal number of seats there. That was why it was easy to topple the state government with a mere three state assemblypersons crossing over. So, if Pakatan Rakyat can’t win Perak that would come as no shock to most people. In Selangor, however, Pakatan Rakyat won a sizeable number of seats. That means if fresh state elections are held in Selangor there is no reason why Pakatan Rakyat can’t come back into power.
Or can’t Pakatan Rakyat retain Selangor? That is what many are now asking. And this is because they are not so sure any longer. They feel that Selangor is not as sure-win as Pakatan Rakyat may think it is. The natives are restless and they are of the opinion that Selangor is not doing as great as they would like it to be.
Basically, Selangor is not running as well as they had hoped. Corruption is still rampant. There is no change in the state administration compared to the days that Umno or Barisan Nasional ran the state. It is still the same shit, just different days.
Businessmen, in particular the Chinese, still need to seek out the Umno warlords to get things done. Pakatan Rakyat may be officially running Selangor. But Umno decides what happens. And unless you make deals with the Umno warlords then nothing happens.
The dog is not wagging the tail. The tail is wagging the dog. And only if Umno says it happens will it happen, never mind what the Pakatan Rakyat people at the top, the EXCO Members included, have to say. What Pakatan Rakyat says does not cut it as far as the state machinery is concerned. They take orders from the Umno warlords. And there are no two ways about it.
Anwar Ibrahim has just been made the ‘economic adviser’ to the Selangor State Government, whatever that means. Why does Selangor need an adviser? It needs a CEO. In the days of the British Colonial Government before the Second World War, when the Sultans were the heads of state, Selangor had a British Adviser. Now we want to turn the clock back and appoint an adviser to the Selangor State Government like in the pre-war days. The only thing is we have exchanged a white skin for a brown skin.
No, Selangor does not need an adviser. It needs a capable CEO. And Khalid Ibrahim is not quite the CEO that Selangor needs. So what do they go and do? Instead of replacing the CEO they go and appoint an adviser to hold the hands of the ineffective CEO.
Some suspect the move to appoint Anwar the adviser to Selangor is the first step to eventually appoint Azmin Ali as the new Menteri Besar to replace Khalid. So, before Anwar can make his next move, they pre-empt it by trying to bring Azmin down. Thus that police report against Azmin as reported by Bernama above. They want Azmin dead in the water before Anwar can have visions of replacing Khalid with Azmin.
Personally, I have no problems with Azmin taking over as the new Selangor Menteri Besar. At least he is vicious enough to break some heads. And many heads need to be broken to get the Selangor state machinery to toe the line and to stop all the sabotage. But there are many who shudder at the thought of Azmin taking over from Khalid. The party will surely end and Pakatan Rakyat will be able to restore order in the state machinery if Azmin takes over. Thus the move to neutralise Azmin with various allegations about what he did in another life.
There is just too much rhetoric going on and people are getting very tired of all this rhetoric. They want to see some action. But there will be no action unless Anwar is prepared to grab the bull by the horns. It boggles the mind why in the first place Anwar appointed Khalid instead of Azmin as the Selangor Menteri Besar. Maybe it is because Azmin is too close to Anwar so he does not want to be accused of favouritism. But Selangor is too important a state. It is the jewel in the crown. Anwar should have thrown caution to the wind and gone ahead and appointed Azmin, and the critics be dammed.
Khalid has to be brought into line. And if he can’t be brought into line then he has to be axed. That is the long and short of it. Appoint Azmin if need be. Azmin can’t be worse than Khalid. Khalid is making a mess of things that if they dissolved the Selangor State Assembly and called for fresh elections Pakatan Rakyat will be hard-pressed in retaining the state. That is the reality of the situation.
Anwar has made many mistakes since 8 March 2008. We have talked about this so many times so we do not need to recap the issue. We are prepared to overlook these mistakes. We are prepared to forgive although we will never forget and will constantly remind Anwar about these mistakes. But unless Anwar corrects the biggest mistake of all, handing Selangor to someone not capable of doing the job, there is no way we are going to forgive him and the voters will demonstrate their displeasure come the next election when they give Selangor back to Barisan Nasional.
The ball is now at Anwar’s feet. And he had better know which side of the field the goal is. Currently, he appears to be shooting the ball into his own goal. Or is this being done on purpose?