Saturday, March 15, 2008

THE RECALCITRANTS: ANWAR AND LIM

Hantu Laut

The bickering and jockeying for positions in the Perak State Assembly are going to screw-up the chance of DAP,PKR and PAS forming a cohesive and functioning coalition.Unfair play in selecting the menteri besar and members of the exco are due to distrusts, political immaturity and differences in political philosophy. It's like putting cats and dogs in the same cage.

The biggest stumbling blocks in the Perak tussle are Lim Kit Siang and Anwar Ibrahim. Both have their hands in the works. Both Lim and Anwar are recalcitrants and fighting cocks in the political arena and with a dog in the manger attitude they will not give up until they get what they wanted. Their squabbles will soon benefit the BN.

With a slim combined simple majority they have, the likelihood of BN taking back the state government is not far-fetched. The BN needed only 3 elected members to cross the floor to their side to form the government, a possibility not at all remote. The BN has 27 solid UMNO seats plus 1 MCA making a total of 28.

Even if they have successfully ironed out their differences and proceeded with a coalition government, the immense amount of distrusts they have for each other will sooner or later breakup the coalition.

Since both DAP and PKR have been given not much choice but to accept the Sultan's choice of candidate as menteri besar, there will be serious repercussions later. The acquiescence will make the tenancy of the menteri besar precarious and hang in the balance. A few disgruntled members from DAP or PKR can cross over to join BN to pass vote of no confidence and remove the menteri besar and replaced with one of their own choice which can come from UMNO.

One that's even more puzzling is why did the Sultan chose a candidate from PAS instead of PKR which has more seats than PAS in the assembly ?

In the event of an impasse the Sultan can call on UMNO as the single biggest bloc to form a minority government.

In politics anything can happen, there are no permanent enemies or friends.

2 comments:

Monsterball said...

I read the PAS MB-designate's biography put up on a web-site somewhere. He's a pretty highly qualified guy.

The country isn't ready for a Chinese MB in a Malay-majority state. Maybe someday it won't matter, but not today...

The PKR assemblymen are err...not so well qualified. Its just how it turned out. In other states, the PKR had been able to field quite solid candidates.

Unrelated issue :- The US may elect a Black as a President in 2008 - yes, that would be a good example to other countries.

gram.kong said...

kittykat46,
You mean all 7 of them not qualified?

It means Malaysia is not a full democratic nation,if sultans can decide who should be the menteri besar and not appoint the one that enjoys the majority support of the house.

Anyway, what we want is peace and harmony, it doesn't matter who rule the country as long as the nation's interests come first.