PETALING JAYA: PKR’s move to Kajang was so hush hush that even Anwar Ibrahim was not aware of the plans till the very last minute, so claims Rafizi Ramli.
The PKR strategy director Rafizi says that Anwar only spoke to former Kajang assemblyman Lee Chin Cheh an hour before he resigned.
“Lee stepped down from his post on Saturday (Jan 25) and Anwar only knew the plan for him to contest the seat on Monday (Jan 27),” Rafizi said to reporters at a press conference at PKR headquarters.
Rafizi says the move was masterminded by him and five other PKR leaders. He refused to say who the five are.
Rafizi said that Anwar is needed by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in Selangor to thwart Umno’s plans to unsettle the PKR-led government in the state by playing on racial and religions issues.
“The idea of Anwar coming to Selangor has been there all along. Things escalated in the last few months, the public may not feel it, but we don’t under estimate how quickly the race, religions issues can escalate. All it take is just one flash point.
“Umno has done it in 1977 in Kelantan and its not even a race issue, when a few differences arose in the state government, Umno used Emergency Ordinance (EO) to suspend the state government,” he said.
Rafizi said that they are preparing for the worst case scenario that Umno will use the racial and religions tension in Selangor to their advantage and step in using the EO again.
“That is why we feel that the problem in Selangor is not an administrative problem, it’s about a political and that is why we need to counter it politically.
“I had been saying this all along and Khalid Ibrahim also admitted that sometimes political problems needs to be addressed by a political maestro and we feel the best person is Anwar,” he said.
Rafizi also said that the Kajang move not only will push Umno back to the drawing board, but also help cool down the racial and religious tension in the state.
“Umno has their plans, if they continue to hold demonstrations (on religions issues), it will confirm what we are saying that they are playing the racial and religious card.
“Another factor is Noh Omar the Selangor Umno liasion chief. Sparring with menteri besar Khalid Ibrahim is one thing but taking on Anwar is a differentissue.
When it comes to political issues and decisions Anwar is quicker is to react as he has been in the political scene longer than Khalid.
The Kajang state seat fell vacant following the resignation of incumbent assemblymen Lee of PKR on Jan 27 and the Election Commission has announced that it would meet on Feb 5 to discuss the by-election nomination and polling dates.
The state seat comprises 38,965 registered voters. At the last general election in May, 2013, the seat saw a voter turnout of 87.9% with 541 spoilt votes. It has 48% Malay voters, Chinese 41%, Indian 10% and others 1%.
In the 2013 general election PKR’s Lee garnered 19,571 votes followed by Lee Ban Seng (Barisan Nasional-MCA) with 12,747 votes and Mohamad Ismail (Berjasa) 1,014 votes. The three independent candidates who contested the seat are Mohd Iwan Jefrey Abdul Majib (249 votes), Ong Yan Foo (85 votes) and Mohd Khalid Kassim (83 votes).
Lee won the seat with a comfortable 6, 824 vote majority.
Source: FreeMalaysiaToday
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