By Niza Shimi
There was a big tent in the parking lot outside Melawati Mall the other day when we drove past. It was still early and the tent was filled with empty chairs waiting for the crowds to descend later that night. The political rally circuit has begun in earnest.
Drive a little further to Kampong Klang Gate and from the car you can see the house where Azwan Ali, Azmin Ali and Ummi Hafilda Ali must have grown up in. The house looks forlorn as their parents have both died some time ago.
The Ali siblings have become famous, in one way or another. Azwan is a celebrity, Ummi Hafilda is a businesswoman and Azmin (the eldest) is currently the Minister of International Trade and Industry under the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government and a Dato’ Seri.
As we drove by the family home, it was a stark reminder that this used to be Azmin Ali territory. He was a Member of Parliament for Gombak since 2008. I don’t vote in the area but I do shop at Melawati Mall on occasion.
Every election season the Taman Melawati area would be festooned with Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) flags, along with those of other parties, and there would be huge buntings displaying Azmin and gang. But the big tent on the parking lot is a stark reminder that those days are over.
A former Selangor Menteri Besar under PKR, Azmin is now with Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu). He will now forever be remembered as the PKR defector who masterminded the Sheraton Move with Bersatu’s Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who became PM8.
PKR, Democratic Action Party (DAP), Bersatu and others formed the Pakatan Harapan coalition that won the 14th general elections (GE14) in 2018 which saw Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad return as the seventh prime minister. Within two years the government collapsed when Tun Mahathir resigned.
News reports of the PKR mega rally in Taman Melawati, with an estimated 5,000 attendance, saw former Azmin comrades referring to a war to wrest seats in constituencies of “traitors” who won on the party's ticket but defected.
Free Malaysia Today reported (September 12, 2022) that PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said: “In our election strategy, the constituencies that we will attack the most are those that have been chosen by the people to look after them but they were betrayed. That’s the reason why we are focusing on these areas to punish and topple them.”
PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli chose to provoke the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) (Agenda Daily September 12, 2022) by saying: “Kalau kamu berani panggil pilihan raya masa banjir, kamu panggil. Insyaallah kita sumbat semua dalam penjara lepas kami menang.” (If you dare to call for elections during the flood season, go ahead. God willing, we will shove all of you in jail after we win.) This was met with a slew of responses from UMNO the next day.
Could that be just bravado or has the gauntlet been thrown for Azmin and UMNO?
Gombak (P98) is a parliamentary constituency in Selangor with voters made of Malays (75.8%), Chinese (10.67%), Indians (10.77%) and others. Azmin won 53.2% of the votes in GE14. Azmin has not indicated if he will stand again in Gombak as a Bersatu candidate for GE15.
The writer Ernest Benn has been credited with the quote: "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.” Could PKR be doing the same, looking for trouble? Wasn't it trouble from within PH that led to defections?
When history is told about how PKR began from the Reformasi movement after Anwar was sacked and later jailed, it will show that Azmin played an instrumental role. Now he is seen as a traitor and a political adversary. They say there are no permanent enemies in politics. Will this situation with Azmin ever be reversed?
What does that say about loyalty in politics? Even blood ties between siblings and family members can be broken because of political differences. What more friendships?
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