Pakatan Rakyat premonition to pre-destruction

Pakatan Rakyat  (PR) is really heading towards self inflcited destruction. So many intense ‘infighting’ and ‘civil war’ looms within the component party of the coalition party formed on ‘unholy marriage of (in)convenience between strange bedfellows’. All these, developed within the week. However, the ‘crack’ within Pakatan Rakyat is imminently getting bigger.

First, it was PAS Murshidul Am Dato’ Nik Aziz’s call to convene an AGM to sack Deputy Presiden Nasharuddin Mat Isa, Secretary General Dato’ Mustaffa Ali and Selangor PAS Commissioner Dato’ Dr. Hassan Md. Ali for positively developing the idea of ‘working’ with UMNO for the common good of Malay-Muslims, the majorit if Malaysian populous. This was met with a lot of confusion amongst the leaders and grassroot. The matters is worsened when Vice President Salahuddin Ayub annonuced that there will just be a ‘special meeting; convened to “discuss the matter” instead of an EGM.

The Star has the story:

Published: Sunday October 25, 2009 MYT 5:27:00 PM
Updated: Sunday October 25, 2009 MYT 7:27:47 PM

No PAS EGM, only special meeting: VP Salahuddin (Update)

KUALA LUMPUR: PAS will not call for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) as proposed by its spiritual leader, Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, but will instead convene a special meeting to discuss issues related to the party, vice-president Salahuddin Ayub said.

He told Bernama Sunday that the issue of PAS calling for an EGM no longer arose as Nik Aziz himself had suggested that the forum be changed into a special meeting.

Salahuddin said that Nik Aziz conveyed the matter to him at their meeting at the latter’s residence in Kota Baru on Saturday.

“It does not arise anymore. I met the Tok Guru yesterday and listen to his views on the party. The central PAS will convene a special meeting soon; Nik Aziz told me about this in our meeting yesterday,” he said according to Bernama.

Last Friday, in his blog http://www.blogtokguru.com, Nik Aziz called for a special “muktamar” to rid the party of “two or three problematic leaders”.

He mentioned three leaders in his blog, namely deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa, secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali and Selangor PAS commissioner Datuk Dr Hassan Ali.

Meanwhile, Mergawati Zulfakar of The Star reported from Hua Hin that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak felt that the split in PAS was very serious but Umno was still willing to hold Malay and Muslim unity talks with the party.

“We are open (for the talk) but if there is a split in the party now, one that is willing to have some form of understanding with Umno and the other that does not want to have anything to do with Umno at all.

“So as long as PAS is not able to reach consensus, it will be difficult to hold talks with PAS,” Najib told Malaysian journalists after attending the East Asia Summit here Sunday.

When asked whether he was hurt that Nik Aziz refused to have anything to do with Umno, Najib replied: “There are two groups in the party – one that is more political while the other is more sincere about working for the Ummah.

“We are grateful that there are people who appreciate that Umno represents the Malays and Muslims. Umno has done a lot in terms of Islam and fighting for the rights of Malays and other races.

“There are certain quarters who acknowledge our contributions and there are those who are more interested in politics and ignore what we have done,” he added.

*************************

The fact is that, the intra-PAS ‘civil war’ will be seen  momentarily arisen from some of the more progessive but very traditional in their values PAS members decided to work with the more viable formula, UMNO. Of late, UMNO is being seen to be strengthening and starting to regain some its lost grounds (with the landslide result of PRK N31 Bagan Pinang) where else PAS is spiraling into deeper conundrums and entanglements.

The ‘uneasiness’ within PAS especially the traditionalists aka Ulama factions evolves from the ‘unholy’ alliance with Anwar “Mat King Leather” Ibrahim and PKR, where PAS grassroots already started to voice their ‘dissatisfaction’ on how the Muslim Malay public view party who claims to be ‘Islamists’, with clear contradicting policies within the PR lately. This is more apparent when PAS was seen to be ‘compromising’ their own principles and fundamentals in favour of DAP and PKR.

This is a clear indication there is not only a wedge between the Leadership, namely PAS President Dato’ Hj Hadi Awang and the Murshidul Am but a strong wrest for power between the Ulamas and ‘Erdogans’ (Young Turks) is developing into something ugly. This started pre-PAS party elections and at the rebuttal address, Hadi mooted  idea of ‘Unity Government’. The Erdogans are closely linked with PAS leaders who are pro-partyless Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim where as it is widely known that majority of the Ulamas do not agree with the one-time-convicted-for-sodomy-but-later-let-free-for-techinicality defacto leader of PR.

On the otherhand, the ‘squable’ within PKR has worsened. After the recent tiff out  in the open between Vice President Azmin Ali and new-kid-on-the-block Dato’ Zaid Ibrahim who was for a brief moment Cabinet Minister in PM ‘Flip-Flop’ Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s 12 month post 12GE government and recently jumped ship into PKR, the ‘civil war’ took a nasty turn. Party President Wan Azizah Wan Ismail sacked Azmin as the PKR Chairman of Sabah. This is on top of the existing ‘civil war’ within PR Selangor, where MB Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim is not a favourable choice by Wan Azizah.

Malaysian Insider has the story:

PKR forms new council, appoints new leaders for Sabah and Sarawak

UPDATED

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 — PKR moved today to put behind the rising discontent in East Malaysia when it appointed a new state chief for Sabah and also formed a National Integration Council for Sabah and Sarawak.

Thamrin Zaini was appointed the new Sabah chief, replacing Azmin Ali after leaders from the state had threatened a revolt recently over the latter’s leadership.

But the party hopes that the formation of the new National Integration Council with senior leaders from the state and also from the peninsular will be a more permanent solution to help improve ties with the two East Malaysian states.

Among the leaders appointed to the council are Dr Jeffrey Kitingan as coordinator, and Daniel Tajem from Sarawak, Dr Syed Husin Ali and Dr Toh Kin Woon.

PKR chieftains in both states were in open revolt and were demanding that local leaders be appointed to head the party.

In Sabah, factions aligned to the appointed party vice-president Jeffrey had launched a mutiny against Azmin by submitting a memorandum which, among other matters, claimed that Azmin had under-performed.

But after PKR’s national leadership met today for four hours, party president Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail announced that both vice-president Azmin and Mustafa Kamil Ayub would be replaced as Sabah and Sarawak chiefs.

Azmin has been replaced by local man Thamrin, who is Libaran assemblyman, and Mustafa was replaced by local lawyer Baru Bian.

Wan Azizah denied that Azmin’s removal was due to pressure from PKR Sabah.

“There was not any issue of revolt. We had a meeting and they agreed to give me the mandate to choose ( Sabah’s party chief) and they will support my decision,” she told reporters at PKR headquarters in Tropicana here.

Both Azmin and Mustafa have been reappointed as party chiefs of Federal Territory and Perak respectively.

Wan Azizah also anounced that Penang deputy chief minister Dr. Mansor Othman would replace Datuk Zahrain Mohammad Hashim as Penang’s new party chief with Abd Rahman Yusof as Terengganu chief, and PKR election director Saifuddin Nasution as Kelantan chief. PKR Youth chief Syamsul Iskandar would also be replacing Khalid Jafaar as Melaka party chief

Party de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim denied that Azmin reportedly resigned from his Sabah post earlier this week.

“Azmin Ali and Mustafa Kamil Ayub were given the task ( to lead Sabah and Sarawak) till the end of October,” he told reporters at PKR headquarters in Tropicana here.

In a bid to make headway in both states, which are crucial vote banks for Barisan National (BN), ahead of the next national elections, Anwar took over the leadership of both states in March.

However in May, both Mustaffa and Azmin were handpicked to lead the party in the two states.

The unilateral move by Anwar to appoint Malay leaders from the peninsula, which was supposedly a temporary measure to consolidate the party in East Malaysia, had backfired.

In an effort to help mend the strained relationship between the party’s east and west Malaysian members, the party announced the formation of a National Integration Council for Sabah and Sarawak.

**********************

When contacted, Azmin was said to have ‘not known’ of his sacking from the Sabah PKR Chairmanship. Many even within PKR believed that this was more personal than political.

Regardless, PR is at the juncture where the rakyat demands that the ‘co-operation’, be it ‘unholy and marriage of (in)convenience’ be made formal and structured as a political organisation, just like Barisan Nasional. Since able to form state governments in five states post 8 March 2008 12 GE, so many spats in the open between PR Leaders, visibily DAP and PAS. The rakyat is also getting restless with all the PR’s wrongdoings starting to be uncovered, now they have assume power and ‘tasted blood’.