I’ve only met Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim (TSKI) once. He appeared a very quiet person in private. “Speak only when spoken to” is quite a neat motto to live by – it gets you out of trouble, they say. I would have never guessed that TSKI was a quiet person in public. I would expect him to answer allegations against him ethically and righteously – that’s his public persona as we know it. He was quiet, but never shy, I thought.

Nevertheless, he failed to answer when serious questions were posed to him. There is something wrong that these aplenty doubts were left unaddressed. There is something really wrong.

One-man only

Before Selangor entered its second term under TSKI, he was already known to be a player without the team – he played alone in all the positions for the every match. For example, the chapter of the exorbitant raise of elected representatives’ remuneration created an upheaval as the decision was made without the consultation of anyone. As it turns out, TSKI’s pattern of administration is such that he prefers to make the decision before merely “informing” his EXCOs, interest groups, and the public, as formality, I guess. “I got it down”, he implicitly tells you.

Selangor’s water restructuring deals can be criticized by virtue of the crisis in itself, or for TSKI’s behind-closed-doors agreements with the Federal Government, which was once again done without consultation. It was more than once that this pattern repeated, with the most recent one on the 1st of August. Realising the importance of the water restructuring deal and TSKI’s one-man-show behavior, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) even set up a special committee comprising of Tony Pua, Rafizi Ramli, Dr Dzulkefy Ahmad, and lawyer Tommy Thomas, for more accountability and monitoring the water restructuring processes. This committee soon became futile as TSKI never once consulted them.

TSKI was also oblivious over serious issues like the Bible raids, racial and religious tensions all happening in Selangor’s backyard, and several highly questionable projects like Kidex Highway and EcoWorld transactions. I personally find it also doubtful on why the 3rd Klang Bridge, which value nearing RM 200 million, was awarded to Cergas Murni, the same company that was allegedly responsible for the collapse of parts of the 2nd Penang Bridge on June last year. They claimed that it was awarded via an open tender process, but wouldn’t you, like me, have similar doubts on whether there was impropriety and needed at least a clarification?

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim v Bank Islam

The most doubtful of all, for me, is what happened around TSKI’s court case against Bank Islam. It remains suspicious as to why Bank Islam would withdraw a RM 70 million case against TSKI - when it was conceded to be relatively straightforward for them – after an out-of-court settlement was made between TSKI and the other party. None of the terms of the settlement were made known even to TSKI’s own lawyer, and the supposed involvement of an “Umno fixer” in the settlement produces endless questions to an ordinary, discerning citizen.

TSKI is not a team player. And this continues to hurt PR as the overly authoritarian style of operating the state had no value of democracy thereon. I know the concept of how the separation of state administration and politics is an essential ingredient for greater efficiency in governance, but what use is it if TSKI is not able to communicate his decisions to his party, when his party is also ultimately accountable and answerable for the people who voted them in in the first place?

Kak Wan v TSKI; or Kak Wan v remaining PKR Selangor assemblypersons?

The debate on whether Dr Wan Azizah, or casually referred to as “Kak Wan”, is the most suitable candidate for the next Menteri Besar (MB) is not one of comparison between “Kak Wan vs TSKI”, but one comparing “Kak Wan vs other remaining PKR Selangor assemblypersons”.

This is because pursuant to the highly doubtful integrity of TSKI, it is not a question for PKR, that TSKI must go before Selangor is eventually lost to BN again in the next election if all these problems dragged on. With credible allegations of corruption against TSKI and the many incompetent management of the state, it is best to remove him from the MB post he was appointed to by his party. His refusal to comply that party decision also speaks volume now on his “changed” character, and adds validity to these allegations against him.

Our vote is dedicated to which party we place our confidence in. It is not a vote to choose who will be the MB of our state – there is no such option in the form that we fill to vote. It is the party that we placed our trust in to appoint the person as MB. If the party is unsatisfied with the performance of the MB, it is entirely proper for the party to switch to another assemblyperson for the post, if the party feels appropriate to fulfill the mandate from the people. This also can mean that it does not matter if any of the allegations have differing levels of validity, as the party is entitled to remove the MB it appointed. This is how our system works.

But if we do think it important to compare Kak Wan to TSKI anyway, then against the numerous incompetency and serious allegations against TSKI, Kak Wan seems to be the better choice.

“Selangor MB must come from PKR,” PR agreed

So if that first hurdle is overcome, then the debate evolves around whether Kak Wan is the best among the remaining PKR assemblypersons to take the role of MB.
And it has to come from PKR and PKR only. This is the principled pact made between Pakatan Rakyat, and it is convention (what usually is the case) that the other PR parties will agree to the candidate nominated by the party for the MB post. It was once again reaffirmed in the meeting of presidential councils of PR recently, that it was entirely the prerogative of PKR to nominate its own candidate for MB, and the other parties are ready to comply with that decision.

The most apparent precedent that must be followed by PR is that of PAS’s Kedah MB post before GE13, whereby PKR and DAP agreed with PAS’s nomination of MB, despite many within PKR and DAP were eager to push for a change in PAS’s nomination. This is also true in the case of Penang and Kelantan, where the other 2 parties agreed with the first nomination they place for the MB post.

Hadi Awang’s refusal to accept Kak Wan, albeit not officially yet, is reneging on the principled pact PR has, and he has to realize this. He must respect PKR’s official endorsement of Kak Wan as MB and assent to it, just like how DAP has done so. That is why August 10th’s meeting will decide the fate of PR, as an inability to stay to its pact, there is no use of PR anymore.

I assume, only under extraordinary circumstances - and the dissenting party has to produce good reasons therefore – that a party can disagree with the nomination of the party given prerogative for the selection. The reasons for dissent that we hear from PAS were two: Kak Wan is unsuitable as she was a woman, and/or Kak Wan will be merely a shadow of Anwar Ibrahim and not able to carry out decisions on her own (“puppet”, or nepotism).

I will not even address the first reason, it’s absurd in itself.

The sexism behind “No to Kak Wan”

Nepotism is a form of favourtism given to a person by virtue of being a relative to the one in power. It is convenient for us to make such accusations when in politics we see there are familial relations one has to another in power. However, we must note that nepotism can only be present whenever the beneficiary is one which has no appropriate qualification, and would not have gained that position otherwise.

There is also – similar to the “being a woman” reason – a hidden sexist element to accusations on Kak Wan that she is merely a puppet for her husband. It is sexist because we accuse her for gaining such selections merely by being the wife of Anwar Ibrahim, before ever paying attention to the merits and clout that she possesses as a candidate in her own right.

PAS judges Kak Wan as someone prima facie “less-of” by virtue of her being a woman. It does not make sense that just because her husband is a prominent leader that we are unable to take her on her own merits. It is greatly sexist to say that she is nothing more than the wife of a prominent leader before we acknowledge her achievements. Just because some of her achievements in politics are gained indirectly from the injustices against her husband, it doesn’t negate what she has been.

All these, therefore, yearns the question on whether Kak Wan is the best candidate among the remaining pool of PKR Selangor assemblypersons.

Do we know Kak Wan?

Kak Wan is one of the most academically brilliant politicians we have in the opposition (top student awarded gold from Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland). She has professional experience as a doctor for 14 years, she served as the PKR party president - which people greatly underestimate, where in fact there are many achievements that can be credited to her -   for over 15 years, she won 3 Parliamentary elections and 1 state election, she was the leader of opposition, she was the leader of PR, and possibly one of the female politicians who had stayed in top political positions for a long period of time. 

She is a well-respected female leader in her own right – easily defeating many incompetent male leaders.

For the sake of completeness, Kak Wan – unlike TSKI – has been known to be consultative and a listener who is open to opinions. Also, she had not in her political life enunciated or done anything to suggest that she is an incapable and unfit leader. And unlike many of our politicians, Kak Wan is a politician who is clean from any scandals or impropriety.

We are uncomfortable to accept her because we are stigmatized with the experiences where Kak Wan was always only a replacement for her husband when in times of need. However, we must agree that Kak Wan has a proven track record that is above all the other PKR Selangor assemblypersons at the moment. That is perhaps why we hadn’t heard any suggestions on other potential candidates instead of Kak Wan thus far.

Our romanticism with a leader who is a downright masculine male with an outstanding corporate career in accordance our definition of “successful”, must go. Because, if anything to take away from this TSKI debacle at all, TSKI just proves that a corporate giant like him is able to screw up the state administration too.
We unfairly set a high benchmark for Kak Wan to fulfill as an MB because of this romanticism, whereas we just fully trusted TSKI when he had no prior experience as an MB before his first term. The same goes other MBs when there is such a change in our state administration - we just accepted them. Unless you can genuinely show a more qualified candidate than Kak Wan in Selangor assemblypersons from PKR, you might just have a bias against Kak Wan.

NIMBY

Malaysians hate messiness in state and federal administration, I admit. We are easily frustrated and like to use the word “politics” to conclude all unfavourable situations and blame all politically associated people. And we’re also NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard).

Would we prefer the status quo TSKI mess, or prefer to endure this transitional messiness to clean things up? TSKI is from PKR and he has caused the mess. It is imperative that PKR cleans up the mess he has made.

It is not unconstitutional to do what PKR is doing, nor are they circumventing any laws or conventions by doing so. PKR is following the rules of our political system, TSKI isn’t.

* James Chai is a first-year law student. He reads The Malaysian Insider.

*This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

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