My Podium

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

One Month After 12thGE

(1)
Tourism Minister, Azalina Othman, scrapped all MOUs signed by her ministry with contractors in the five states ruled by People Alliance (Pakatan). All these while, I wrongly assumed Azalina would belong to a more progressive minded camp within UMNO. She was social activist prior to her appointment as Puteri’s chief. She was also vocal about justice and human rights, but power has corrupted her so much that she too had joined other wicked pranks within BN.

She was cited to have said that this decision was taken because her ministry would not be able to work with the oppositions. How could I believe this coming from her? Firstly, she is supposed to work with the state governments, not opposition. Secondly, any government of the day should work with all the people, regardless of their political affiliation. Thirdly, reducing signed business MOUs to merely political toys is a slap in face of government’s integrity she is representing.

With this kind of shallow thinking, I seriously doubt her qualification to be a federal government minister!

(2)
Information Minister, Ahmad Shabery Chik, announced that his ministry would embrace bloggers and alternative media activists. I must applaud this move. He has learned fast enough. But, his main jobs is to also reform our mainstream media. The Pakatan MPs would push for reform in Information Act in the parliament to guarantee fair access to information for all citizens, both in mainstream and alternative media. Frankly, I hope Ahmad Shabery would not antagonize this move if he truly intends to have the people embracing ministry.

Ahmas Shabery was a staunch Islamist when he led Islamic students movement in the UM. He studied in Institut Berakan in Terengganu, a private educational institution owned by PAS, which had steadily suplied PAS cadres into local universities. He was one of those cadres.

When there was a Kijal by-election in the early 90’s, Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah, consisting of PAS and S46, agreed to field a candidate from PAS to stand on S46 platform. Ahmad Shabery was the candidate. Since then, he was affiliated with S46 and very closed to Ku Li. He joined UMNO when S46 was disbanded and its members returned to UMNO’s fold en bloc.

Deep in my heart, I am hopeful he could bring reform to our pathetic media.

(3)
Of all the MBs and CM in the Pakatan ruled states, I personally opine that Selangor MB, Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, is the least impressive thus far. He received more media coverage as compared to his counterparts within Pakatan, but he fumbled in many occasions. Perhaps, this clumsiness has actually landed him to more media coverage. His corporate experience surely is an asset for him, but banking too much on his corporate image to run a state administration could run him into trouble.

Surprisingly, Perak MB, who is politically much weaker due to seats composition in Perak DUN as compared to Abdul Khalid in Selangor, seems to be moving forward more steadily and convincingly.

Mohammad Nizar, is far from being any heavyweight in politics. But, he has the right attitude and clear mindset. He approaches issues diligently and selects his words very carefully. His humbleness, modesty, and yet sophistication steal people’s hearts. In Perak, people have started to liken him with Kelantan’s Tok Guru. It won’t surprise me if one day, Nizar could fit into a bigger shoe than what Tok Guru had ever placed.

Penang’s DAP knew days before March 8 that they would be voted into power. Had they known this much earlier, they could have avoided current problem in which many of their key state leaders are also parliamentarians. No one expects key state administrators to be as effective in the parliament as well. This would be huge potential waste because bigger reform could only be fought in parliament. Inability to perform in parliament would also pose political liabilities to these leaders.

I’m not doubtful that determination would provide Guan Eng ample opportunities to prove his worth to all Penangites. My only reservation is his tendency to be too idealistic in his pursuing political ideology. He should be listening more to younger and dynamics DAP leaders who are closer to the people at the grassroots. Karpal Singh is someone he could do without.

Kelantan must solve the issue of leadership succesion within this term and it must solve this issue with utmost care. Tok Guru would not stand there forever. He is surely not indispensible. PAS Kelantan does not seem to be able to resolve this issue on its own without active and proactive guidance from PAS national leadership. This is a bitter reality PAS supporters must swallow. PAS must also be courageous enough to admit mistake that allowing a person to take helm for too long would pose problems in the long term. If it were UMNO, the problem would be corruption. In the case of PAS, the problem is leadership succession.

I was told by one Kedah PAS youth leader, weeks before nomination day, that Kedah was most likely fall into BA and they had make preparation for that eventuality. They had expected to win 19 seats, based on reports they compiled from their election machineries. Quite close, PAS won 16 and PKR won 4. Together they formed new Kedah state government, with an additional seat from an independent ADUN who later joined PKR.

Thus, it was not surprising that Azizan Razak could meet Sultan a day after election and took just few days to appoint his lineups to swear in before the Sultan, among the earliest state governments formed after the 12th General Election.

Kedah is home for many political heavyweights, from both sides. Azizan has many loyal, highly capable and experienced men around him to help him steer the state administration. But he must also bear in mind, his political opponents in Kedah BN are equally masterful, able to bring unpleasant surprise to him.